Germany 1936 Set Up

[Mattandre2001]

Hi guys, it's me again. I decided to abandon the previous game I posted about some days ago because it became obvious that my fate in the long run would have been the same as real life germany in ww2.

Now, the objectives of this run are the same as the previous one: basically conquer europe, the Soviet union and the United Kingdom. If I succeed, I'll look into invading the US, but that's a stretch since I'm a new player. (Well technically I'm not but I didn't really learn much 10 years ago when I was 13).

I know the initial set up is crucial so I have some questions.

Diplomacy: I set automated trade cause I don't have the patience to micro it.( I micro everything else). Who should I influence?

Production: lots of artillery brigades to strengthen my existing 3 INF divisions. This will be the backbone of the army. Apart from this, how many tanks and motorized should I build? How many planes and which kind? How many ships ?(keep in mind I want to beat the US, so I think I'll need a big navy). I was thinking about building a bunch of SH BB with DDs in order to have something strong without the need to invest in researching BB tech, and then carriers with CL.
Also, some ideas for divisions?

Intelligence: I'm building up my spy population in order to get 10 in Germany, then I'll send some in the Soviet Union to lower their national unity since game start, and some more in the other allies countries just to see what's going on industry wise.


Technology: this game I'll start researching nuclear since 1939, and I'd also like to research v2 rockets and jet engines just for the sake of it (they seem so cool).
What are the most important technologies I must research ASAP that newbies don't know about?


Thanks to whoever is going to help me out, I love the game I'd like to learn how to play the best I can.

 

[Contundor]

Diplomacy: I set automated trade cause I don't have the patience to micro it.( I micro everything else).

OK, the "AI" will screw it up. Expect to run out of Metal and Rares sooner rather than later.

Who should I influence?

Don't bother? Use spies to Increase Threat on both Britain and the Soviets, then lots of nations will tend to like you. Italy and Japan will help with influencing.

You have better uses for Leadership, e.g. tech and officers.

Production: lots of artillery brigades to strengthen my existing 3 INF divisions. This will be the backbone of the army. Apart from this, how many tanks and motorized should I build?

Lots of Inf, some Armour. Remember the lack of supply in Russia, minimise at the supply consumption.

How many planes and which kind?

Lots of Interceptor and later Fighters. Britain loves to bomb your industry and the Soviets your divisions. Continuously build two?

You already have a decent amount of tac bombers, some naval bombers might be handy. The air war requires lots of micro, I tend to be lazy...

How many ships ?(keep in mind I want to beat the US, so I think I'll need a big navy). I was thinking about building a bunch of SH BB with DDs in order to have something strong without the need to invest in researching BB tech, and then carriers with CL.

Ship techs are rather cheap, you can afford them. I would ditch BBs and go with BC and CL. Modern BCs are good enough to kill the old BBs the British and US has plenty of, but fast enough to have a slight chance of killing CVs. BCs are faster and cheaper to build and you can ditch some naval doctrines.

CVs will be necessary to invade the US. Prioritise carrier tech and practicals from the start.

CL has better range than DD, you need the range to invade the US. CLs are sturdier, you lose less of them, and need less micromanagement of you navies.

Also, some ideas for divisions?

I go with cheap and many. Inf+Inf+Art and LArm+Mot+AC+MotAA?

A basic corps is four division of Inf+Inf+Art, add +AT for Russia and US, where one division is the corps HQ:

Its easy to grab the HQ and set the entire corps marching. You don't have to control each division on its own. Aim to keep the corps concentrated in one province.

Intelligence: I'm building up my spy population in order to get 10 in Germany, then I'll send some in the Soviet Union to lower their national unity since game start, and some more in the other allies countries just to see what's going on industry wise.

I tend to put almost all Leadership into Espionage the first month or two, then you have plenty for a few years.

Put counterespionage on your main rivals, to drain their spies.

Technology: this game I'll start researching nuclear since 1939, and I'd also like to research v2 rockets and jet engines just for the sake of it (they seem so cool).

Cool, but i prefer Panzers...

What are the most important technologies I must research ASAP that newbies don't know about?

Industry and doctrines?

 

[Kovax]

Agreed with Contundor on almost all points.

The AI will prioritize buying Fuel, meaning no money for Rare Materials or Metal. At the very least, you want to manually sell 20 supplies each to the SU and US. A week later (new diplomats), sell a smaller amount. Then start buying Metal in increasing quantities as the price drops, finally Rare Materials after Relations have driven the cost down. Meanwhile, selling Energy to Italy (they'll need it, and they're an eventual ally) and anyone else who will pay for it will fund your own purchases and provide a tiny amount of diplomatic drift toward your corner. That can even seriously delay the introduction of the US into the war if you don't ally Japan, until you've dealt with the Soviets and are free to turn your entire war machine toward the Atlantic. From there, the AI can still screw it up, but it will at least give you a head start. From there, however, you don't need to do much to maintain what you've already done.

It's possibly to use Influence to keep the Netherlands out of the war completely, which will give you a permanent source of 10-15 Rare Materials, but you won't need that after you annex or puppet the Soviets. I generally don't bother, but it worked well for me at least once.

First priority for Leadership is to build up enough spies to have 10 defensive spies in your own country, set to counterespionage for the first few months before splitting up to raise Party Organization and National Unity. then 10 in Austria, France, and the Soviet Union. Initially, use them to thin the enemy's own defensive spies, then switch a pip or two to attacking National Unity, except in AUS to boost your own party's Organization with all pips (possibly after a month of clearing enemy spies). I often send 10 to the UK as well, to Raise Threat. That serves to reduce my own Consumer Goods Demand, as well as making it easier for Italy and other authoritarian regimes to join the Axis in the future. Note, however, that bringing Italy into the Axis before the defeat of France usually means Italy losing their navy before your own is ready to split the UK's forces between the different theaters. Once you've got those spies placed and a few replacements (the Soviets will kill quite a few), you can set your investment back to about a point, and possibly lower it further as your own spies gain experience. At some point, you'll need 10 spies for CZE as well. Officer Ratio will look good (140%) until you start cranking out a lot of divisions. It only shows a ratio up to 140%, so you may not notice the rapid drop until it suddenly dips under 140, and then it will take time to bring back up. I tend to invest around 5-10 points as GER in 1936, after I've created my initial spies, raising that to 10-15 in late 1937-38 when I start cranking out INF and ARM in increasing quantities.

I tend to run Armies of 4 INF Corps and 1 Armor/Mot Corps (3 ARM and 2 MOT divisions, plus a HQ reinforced with INF). INF should be the bulk of your army, with enough mobile elements to make encirclements once the INF have punched a hole.

In Western Europe, there are enough air bases to make INT preferable to FTR. TACs are much better at Soft Attack against ground targets, more resilient, and longer ranged. CAS have better Hard Attack, but are short-ranged and far more vulnerable. Worse, if you attach a "Tank Buster" to CAS, it actually becomes WORSE against soft targets, which will be the majority of what they bomb. Once you turn East, FTR will rapidly become more important than INT, so I start by building INT and switch to FTR around the time that war begins. You'll still need INT to protect your cities against UK bombers (unless you invade the Isles - not that difficult if you distract the Royal Navy with those ancient WWI BCs), and a few to protect against Soviet bombers over your own troops in the East, so building all FTRs is viable but probably not optimal. As said, aircraft need to be micromanaged, otherwise the AI will run them to destruction (even at less aggressive stances, the weakest unit in the stack will tend to get destroyed, because the AVERAGE condition is still high enough).

Ships are an interesting topic, with lots of options on how to proceed. My favorite is to lay down the keel for a BC at the start while I research one more level of BB main guns and armor, then start a second BC mid-'36. That way, the completion of the first ship will raise your Capital Ship Practical level, causing the second unit to complete 4-5 months earlier than originally scheduled. If you don't start it 5-6 months later than the first, all of those extra IC/days are wasted when it finishes the day after the first ship. After the BB techs finish, I begin work on two actual BBs, again staggered 2-3 months apart (the Practical bonus isn't linear, so the effect will be less for each additional ship). The BBs should both complete just around the start of the war, give or take a few months. That gives you the heart of two surface battle fleets,, just add CLs (DDs are cheaper and increase the fleet's combat speed more, but the CLs tend to take damage and pull back BEFORE getting sunk, so less replacements needed). I also start researching Carriers, and lay down one CVL for the boost in production speed on future units, although it will be too slow to attach to anything but the ancient WWI relics in your Baltic fleet. You'll need several tech levels of Carrier Engines before you can build a CV that won't slow down your BBs.

In naval combat, any time the UK puts a CV into the fight, break off and return to base ASAP, as you will take constant damage from their CAGs. Unless you have a separate CL fleet or a fast CA with DDs/CLs to catch the carriers, you can't engage them except by extreme luck at the initial battle placement if they're deployed close enough to hit. Once you have your own carriers, it's another story. Subs can be used as spotters, to locate easy targets for your surface fleet, particularly after you've taken the French coast and can position your fleet along it between Brest and Spain. Meanwhile, the subs can raid into the Atlantic and along the Spanish coast to prey on shipping through the Mediterranean. Two subs together are a bit more likely to be spotted and engaged than a single sub, but it's more likely that one will survive long enough to flee combat and save your fleet commander, a matter of choice. Once they gain a few levels of experience in sub operations against convoys, they can be transferred to a surface fleet. NEVER put your subs on Aggressive stance, or they'll attack the patrols hunting them, and move them to fresh hunting grounds whenever the searchers get too thick in their current area.

Practical effects, as seen with building ships, also affect everything else you build. Since there's no point in supplying a massive army from 1936 until 1939, I tend to build non-supply items first: 12-20 additional IC, upgrade several airfields (possibly build a new one in Leipzig, which is a favorite target of UK bombers), improve Infrastructure in the east, and add a few Cargo vessels and Transports. Building all other categories in small quantities (a few extra INF brigades to attach to HQs, one or two INT, one TAC, one ARM, one MOT, one ART, one CL, etc.), raises your Practical levels, so around 1938 I begin cranking out the bulk of my new combat units with the improved Practical levels.

If your spies have boosted Nazi Party Organization enough in Austria and allowed an early Anschluss (as early as Aug-Sept 1937), you might have CZE diplomatically annexed by the end of 1938, and be ready to invade Poland and France in Spring of 1939., before the Allies have made much progress toward rearming. A quick incursion through the Maginot Line with ENG and TAC, and you can be ready to face the Soviets in 1940, while their Officer Ratio is still through the floor. It's a proverbial "hot knife through butter" scenario, and the Soviet Union DOES collapse like the famously quoted House of Cards. Then you NEED those carriers to face the Americans, unless you've delayed their entry into the war and taken ports in Canada and/or Mexico as a staging area.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Intelligence is not something you want to invest heavily in - keep enough spies around so that you have 10 in Germany, the UK, and the USSR, with a smaller number in France and the USA. Counter-espionage, raising national unity and lowering enemy national unity are the most useful missions. It's generally best to run LS into all Spies in each January, then you'll have enough spies for the rest of the year and you can move LS to research and officers. Diplomacy is pointless as Germany; you just need enough to do trade deals pre-war. You get Austria and the Czechs via events. Getting Italy into the Axis is a good idea in vanilla, as they stand a decent enough chance to overrunning British North-Africa and Middle-East. Other Axis minors are largely pointless, though Romania will at least give you her oil fields. Finland especially can be a double-edged sword - USSR AI loves garrisoning that border heavily, which means that Axis Finland that gets Called to the War will get occupied on short order but during that time, the Red Army has fewer divisions to put against you. Finnish infra is also pretty bad, which makes it slow going. But if you try to keep Finland up & fighting, it can be a dangerous diversion for yourself. Norway will net you Heavy Water and since Oslo is the only VP, you can easily conquer the country with just a single Fallschirmjäger division - drop it on Oslo, send your pre-war BC's for fire support, maybe a group of TAC too and you'll win. You don't need to defend the country, just Oslo.

As to air units, INT are the way to go at first but as Kovax said, the long range of FTR is definitely useful against the Soviet Union. An easy way to keep the RAF away is to build enough groups of 4 INT so that you can cover all 3 British airfields along the Channel coast as well as Norwich, where the UK AI usually bases their strategic bombers. You won't have enough range to do this until you've captured Belgium and the Netherlands, so use air intercept at first over western Germany to minimize damage. Similarly, keeping stacks over the three nearest French airfields will prevent nearly all Allied air attacks against your units. This is lot less micro-intensive compared to trying to finetune air intercept areas constantly. CAS is almost useless but keep the starting planes and, if you have the LS to spare, improve their techs, as they work well as sort of flying firebrigade - if there's a battle where the enemy has armour that your defending divisions cannot pierce, send the CAS there to soften them up. Never put Tank Buster general in command of CAS. Also, never combine fighters and bombers - this sounds like a good idea but in reality it prevents your bombers from escaping as the fighters try to duke it out - you'll just end up losing A LOT more planes this way.

There are several ways in how to organize your army and no one way is absolutely perfect for every situation. Both 3xINF+ART and 2xINF+ART work - as Contundor said, moving entire corps instead of individual divisions makes life a little easier, but I've found that micro-managing the divisions isn't too much of a hassle as long as you plan things in advance. It's been a long time since I played vanilla but your Panzer corps should have a mixture of different divisions - Panzer divisions with ARM+MEC+MOT+SPART for making the initial breakthrough and for fighting off enemy armour, leichte-Panzer division with light arm+ac+mot for overrunning retreating enemy divisions and to race head for VP locations, and a MOT+MOT+TD+SPART divisions for defending captured positions. How exactly you organize them depends on whether you will have independent Panzer corps as part of Infantry Armies, or whether you will create Panzer Armies that will create large encirclements on their. Both approaches can work. Ideally, your heavy divisions will create a breakthrough, allowing the light division to jump ahead, then the motorized infantry will defend the location until your leg infantry catches up and at the same time, your heavy divisions are pushing forward, allowing the light division to jump forward again and so on and so forth. Important thing is, as Kovax said, to not oversaturate your army with specialist brigades like ENG and AT/TD/AC (AA are useless in vanilla). AC speeds up a division a little and makes it slightly harder, which is good for an exploitation division but is wasted in slugging matches. ENG is great for river crossings, amphibious attacks, cleaning urban areas and forts, plus helps a little bit in forests and swamps, but it brings almost no firepower to the table. AT and TD are, obviously, just for countering enemy armour that is heavy enough that your infantry cannot deal with it - remember to keep the infantry at tech up-to-date - but again are inferior to artillery. So having an infantry corps where 3 divisions have ART, 1 has ENG and 1 has AT gives you a well-rounded corps and avoids the micromanagement of shuffling specialist divisions around the front when needed, but is slightly less optimal. If you really like micro-management, you could have specialist brigade with the Corps HQ instead of using it as the sixth infantry division, and shuffle them with artillery from the divisions when needed. I have done that once and it can get pretty overwhelming, plus you're liable to forget to switch things back every now and then, so I can't really recommend this tactic unless you have an excellent memory!

In any case, having 5 divisions per corps, 5 corps per army and 5 armies per army group is the best use of your generals. Putting Logistics Wizards in command of AGs gives you the most bang for your buck. Theatre commander gives a tiny bonus but does give it to everything, so putting a high skill field marshal there who has as many abilities as possible helps. For this, you could use Rommel or Manstein, and skill them up as a division commander of an infantry division that is trying to solo capture a marsh or an urban area - the battle will last a long time and your soon-to-be Supreme Commander will shoot up from starting 5 to 7 or even higher. For army and corps level, the important thing to remember is that corps commander skill level determines how quickly a division will move from "reinforcement" side to the "combat" side when frontage opens up. In offence, this isn't as big a deal as you can set the start of the attack yourself but on defence it can be crucial as your roving reserve is useless if it never actually gets to enter the combat. Remember, any divisions in the "reinforcement" side get routed if you lose the battle!

When it comes to the Kriegsmarine, I would recommend using 2 or even 3 subs per "fleet" as a single sub will avoid heavily defended convoys, ie convoys that have several convoy escorts. But as Kovax said, the bigger the stacks, the higher the risk of getting spotted and even 6 subs together are not a match for Allied CL+DD fleets, not to mention if they bring a CV with its CAG to the play. Before you get your own CVs, it is useful to send an INT/FTR stack to do air superiority over the sea zone where your fleet will stay for invasion or shore bombardment purposes. If you don't mind gaming the AI a little, you can use the coast of Netherlands as a permanent bait - put fighters over it, send a fleet of 6 capital and 6 escort ships, and wait. AI will send its ships, often piece-meal, into battle. Once your ships get mauled, send them back to Wilhelmshaven and put new ships to the zone. Luftwaffe will easily shred any Allied CAGs and this way you will (slowly) wear down Allied navies without having to spend a lot of effort to it. Otherwise, I have nothing to add to the advice you were already given.

Tech-wise, you should have enough Leadership to research almost everything you want. V-1 and V-2 are useless on their own because by the time you get them, there are no industrial targets you can reach with them as by then you should have conquered Paris, London and Moscow. I'm pretty sure that sub-launched V-2's carrying nukes exist only in mods and not in vanilla game. Jet engines are of course very useful and don't forget to research strategic bombers so you can drop nukes on Washington. Land invasion of North-America is possible but a huge pain in the ass, so anything to make the USA surrender as quickly as possible is great.

 

[Kovax]

Garfunkel presents some excellent advice, but there are other options and points to consider. The UK gets a very substantial "Their Finest Hour" bonus to air combat after France surrenders, so you might want to avoid any unnecessary air confrontations with the UK between then and about 6 months later when the bonus expires. Note that each plane in a formation adds its own firepower and defensiveness, but each plane also decreases the firepower of EVERY plane in the combat, so over-stacking is a problem. The optimum varies from about 5-6 planes, depending on the mission (5 for maximum total firepower, but can be 6 for some missions due to the extra defensiveness). I prefer running groups of 3 planes, because the per plane effectiveness is higher than with more (more bang for the buck), providing almost as much effective firepower, and you can throw 2 groups into a combat without seriously degrading your total firepower. I've seen the AI throw 10+ planes into an air battle, and get demolished, because their effective firepower is penalized down to that of a single plane. Note that CAGs performing CAG Duty only suffer half the penalty, so a blanket of a dozen CAGs above a carrier fleet is something to fear.

1 plane = 1.00 firepower (or 0.9 total if the mission gives a penalty PER PLANE instead of per ADDITIONAL plane)
2 planes = 2x 0.9 firepower = 1.8 total firepower, or 2x 0.8 = 1.6 total, depending on mission
3 planes = 3x 0.8 = 2.4
4 planes = 4x 0.7 = 2.8
5 planes = 5x 0.6 = 3.0
6 planes = 6x 0.5 = 3.0
7 planes = 7x 0.4 = 2.8, and it goes downhill from there
Missions which give a penalty per plane, rather than per additional plane, will have lower total firepower. The maximum per plane penalty is 90%, so if you run over 30 planes, you can marginally exceed the maximum of 3.0 from 5 or 6 planes.

At Army Group level, skill is far more important than the Logistics Wizard trait, although a LW at any high position can have a significant effect on supply usage for all subordinate units. If you have sufficient LWs, putting them at Army level gives twice the bonus as at AG level, but to fewer divisions; doing both is better, if possible. I try to put the few generals with both LW and Combined Arms traits in command of Armor Corps. Some of your best generals begin as division commanders around Konigsburg. The tough choice is to either put them into the campaign against France as division commanders to gain experience more quickly, or to put them higher in the chain to speed up the campaign. You can also compromise and use them as Corps Commanders with attached INF brigades, so they spread their bonuses over 5 divisions instead of one and can participate directly in combat with their divisions to gain experience directly as well as indirectly. Afterwards, move them up to AG level to affect larger numbers of units with their high skills and multiple traits.

Remember that fighting both the UK and France simultaneously at sea with anything more than subs is both painful and unnecessary. Wait until France is gone before taking the Kriegsmarine out to play, and to call Italy into the war. They'll do worse against the UK in North Africa, since they won't be mobilized yet against the mobilized UK and Iraqi divisions, but at least they won't lose their navy before you're ready to send out your own fleets.

Nukes aren't necessary in this game. By the time you research them, it should be a moot point, one way or the other. Jets are a mixed bag, with advantages and disadvantages, rather than an "I Win" button. Read before you research them.

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

Hi guys, it's me again. I decided to abandon the previous game I posted about some days ago because it became obvious that my fate in the long run would have been the same as real life germany in ww2.

Now, the objectives of this run are the same as the previous one: basically conquer europe, the Soviet union and the United Kingdom. If I succeed, I'll look into invading the US, but that's a stretch since I'm a new player. (Well technically I'm not but I didn't really learn much 10 years ago when I was 13).

I know the initial set up is crucial so I have some questions.

Diplomacy: I set automated trade cause I don't have the patience to micro it.( I micro everything else). Who should I influence?

Production: lots of artillery brigades to strengthen my existing 3 INF divisions. This will be the backbone of the army. Apart from this, how many tanks and motorized should I build? How many planes and which kind? How many ships ?(keep in mind I want to beat the US, so I think I'll need a big navy). I was thinking about building a bunch of SH BB with DDs in order to have something strong without the need to invest in researching BB tech, and then carriers with CL.
Also, some ideas for divisions?

Intelligence: I'm building up my spy population in order to get 10 in Germany, then I'll send some in the Soviet Union to lower their national unity since game start, and some more in the other allies countries just to see what's going on industry wise.


Technology: this game I'll start researching nuclear since 1939, and I'd also like to research v2 rockets and jet engines just for the sake of it (they seem so cool).
What are the most important technologies I must research ASAP that newbies don't know about?


Thanks to whoever is going to help me out, I love the game I'd like to learn how to play the best I can.

So you want to conquer Europe, the Soviet Union, and the UK. In addition, you wish to defeat the US navy (you aren't unsure if you are up to the task of invading them).

Here is my advice for you.

First off, go to the Politics tab. You have 10 government positions: Head of State, Head of Government, Foreign Minister, Armament Minister, Minister of Security, Head of Intelligence, Chief of Staff, Chief of the Army, Chief of the Navy, and Chief of the Air force.

For Germany, the Head of State won't change. He gives you +5% to espionage bonus (according to the wiki, The Espionage Bonus trait is an increase in the accuracy of all information presented on the Intelligence screen) and -10% to National Unity Changes (it makes it takes longer to increase the national unity of the county).

The Head of Government is Rudolf Hess, and he will eventually be replaced by an event (I believe in 1941). He gets replaced by Martin Bormann, another Nationalist Socialist that also provides +5% to IC.

We now move onto the Foreign Minister. The current Foreign Minister is Constantin von Neurath. He is a Fascist while Germany is controlled by the Nationalist Socialist Party. Replace him with Joseph Goebbels, a Nationalist Socialist. Their traits don't matter, as Germany is part of a faction.
I'm going to go on a tangent for a moment. On the right hand side of the politics screen is the popularity of the each party that exists within the nation. As the National Socialist party is very popular, they are entitled to 7 cabinet positions (The Head of State and Head of Government don't count toward that number).
The DVP (Social Conservatives) are entitled to 1 seat, but Germany gets no Social Conservatives in 1936.
If there is a miss match between the number of seats a party is entitled to and the number of seats the party actually controls, you will get the negative modify of fractured government. It slowly decreases your national unity by 0.001% each day. Because of this very small affect, it is best not to worry about it. When it comes to ministers, pick the one that has the best trait for whatever your goal is. However, if you have two ministers that have the same trait or their trait doesn't matter, then pick the one that gets you closer to what each party is entitled to.

With that tangent over, we will now go back to the left-hand side of the screen where all the ministers are.

The next positions we will focus on is the Armament Minister.

This is the first time we can not only replace a Minister, but their trait actually matters.
You have 13 Ministers you can choose from:

Rudoff Hess: (-20% to Aeronautical Engineering Decay and -5% to Heavy Aircraft Practical Decay)
Werner Von Blomberg: (-25% to Infantry Theory Decay and -25% to Militia Theory Decay)
Hermann Goring: (-20% to Aeronautical Engineering Decay and -5% Light Aircraft Practical Decay)
Hjalmar Schacht: (+10% IC)
Franz Xavier-Schwarz: (+5% to resources and -25% to Chemical Engineering Decay)
Robert Ley: (-10% to supplies, and +10% to Ruling Party Support)
Frtiz Thyssen: (-2.5% to Consumer goods during wartime, and -2.5% to Consumer goods during peace time)
Julius Curtius: (+5% to resources and -25% to Chemical Engineering Decay)
Alfred Hugenberg: (+5% to resources and -25% to Chemical Engineering Decay)
Franz Xaver Ritter Von Epp: (-25% to Infantry Theory Decay and -25% to Militia Theory Decay)
Franz Seldte: (+20% to supplies)
Konstaintin Hierl: (+5% to resources and -25% to Chemical Engineering Decay)
Gustav Krupp: (-25% to Mobile Unit Theory Decay and -25% to Automotive Theory Decay)

There are a lot of Ministers, but some are redundant or downright bad. Werner Von Blomberg and Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp both have the same trait (-25% to Infantry Theory Decay and -25% to Militia Theory Decay) and are both from the same party (National Socialist). Franz Xavier-Schwarz, Julius Curtius, Alfred Hugenberg, and Konstainstin Hierl all have the same trait (+5% to resources and -25% to Chemical Engineering Decay). Franz Xavier-Schwarz and Konstainstin Hierl and both National Socialist, and Julius Curtius and Alred Hugenberg are both DNVP (Paternal Autocrat). Robert Ley's trait (-10% to supplies, and +10% to Ruling Party Support) is outright bad, because it increases the IC cost for supplies.

We will now focus on the Ministers that affect IC: Hjalmar Schacht: (+10% IC), Frtiz Thyssen: (-2.5% to Consumer goods during wartime, and -2.5% to Consumer goods during peace time), and Franz Seldte: (+20% to supplies).

In order to talk about these 3 Ministers, we need to go to the Production tab. On Jan 1st, 1936 Germany's Base IC is 144 and their Available IC is 201.
They are spending 12.29 IC into supplies, and 12.86 IC into Consumer Goods. Hjalmar increases the available IC from 201 to 216 IC, but consumer goods increase from 12.86 IC to 13.39 IC. Frtiz Thysseen decreases consumer goods IC from 12.86 IC to 7.84 IC. Franz Seldte decreases IC for supplies from 12.29 to 10.53 IC.

Between all three of them, Hjalmar is the best option. Sure, consumer goods increase slightly and more IC the player has, the more resources they need, but its a small price to pay. On top of that, the player can decrease their consumer goods by getting rid of all HQs besides the theater HQ (you will rebuilding them all sometime in Jan of 1939 well in advance of your war with Poland), but you will decrease your consumer goods by decreasing your neutrality. In terms Franz Seldte with increasing supplies by +20%, the player can decrease consumption of supplies by including as many Generals with the trait Logistic Wizard (decrease consumption of supplies by -25%). The player can also decrease supply consumption by having a General with a high level in Army Group, maxing out infrastructure in the provinces, researching Supply Transportation (-0.01 to Transfer Cost), Supply Organisation (+10% to Supply Throughput), Large Front (-0.01 to HQ Supply Consumption), and Guerrilla Warfare (-0.01 to HQ Supply Consumption). You can also research Supply Production (+5% to Supply Production), which decreases the amount of IC needed to produce the same amount of supplies. You should also, from Jan 1936 to Jan 1939, move most of your units to the capital, so decrease the cost of transferring supplies (make sure you trigger the Re-occupation of the Rhineland before you send all your troops to the capital). Finally, there are Ministers you can get that will better help with supply, but we will get to that later.


For these Ministers who have the trait to decrease the Decay of Theory or Practical, there is a bug. You need to get that fixed.

Rudoff Hess: (-20% to Aeronautical Engineering Decay and -5% to Heavy Aircraft Practical Decay)
Werner Von Blomberg: (-25% to Infantry Theory Decay and -25% to Militia Theory Decay)
Hermann Goring: (-20% to Aeronautical Engineering Decay and -5% Light Aircraft Practical Decay)
Franz Xavier-Schwarz: (+5% to resources and -25% to Chemical Engineering Decay)
Franz Xaver Ritter Von Epp: (-25% to Infantry Theory Decay and -25% to Militia Theory Decay)
Gustav Krupp: (-25% to Mobile Unit Theory Decay and -25% to Automotive Theory Decay).

Minister traits regarding decay seemingly not working

Hello all, I started playing HoI3 again and I couldn't help but notice that the traits of my ministers seem to not work properly. As Canada my Chief of the Navy gives -25% Destroyer Practical decay and yet my Destroyer practical decayed at the...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

After you get that fixed, then we can go further into the Ministers.

 

[Poopfaust]

Great stuff above, I wish this thread could be Stickied.

Is deleting all non Theater HQ units a good way to start off as Germany in 1936 to save on several years of Supplies. Then create all of them (AG, Army, Corps) a few months before you are ready to start the war? Or is there something I am missing.

 

[Kovax]

Great stuff above, I wish this thread could be Stickied.

Is deleting all non Theater HQ units a good way to start off as Germany in 1936 to save on several years of Supplies. Then create all of them (AG, Army, Corps) a few months before you are ready to start the war? Or is there something I am missing.

Deleting them and recreating them costs you a bit of manpower, since only a portion of the manpower is returned to your pool. The experience level doesn't matter, since you'll be replacing units with the base experience level with new units of the same level, and many players won't attach combat units to the HQs to use the HQs in combat anyway. Their production is both instantaneous and free, other than the manpower cost.

To me, the micromanagement of having all of those individual divisions with no command structure, and then trying to assign them to HQs in 1939, is just annoying. For me, the command structure is like an index, so I can find any unit easily, and without that, it's all just a big mixed pile to sort through. There are players who simply turn Supplies down to 0 until a few months before they mobilize, because there's no risk of the AI attacking while your entire army is totally helpless, and it saves far more IC/days than just not having HQs to supply, with the added advantage of not losing manpower by deleting units.

I take a slightly less gamey approach by building almost all of my non-supply-using items first, such as additional IC, airfield upgrades, infrastructure improvements, convoys, and anything else that won't eat supplies for 3-4 years before I'm ready to use them. By building only token amounts of each type of item (one INF unit, one motorized brigade, one armor brigade, one Interceptor, one TAC, etc., it still raises the Practical level for that type, so when you're ready to begin cranking out combat units in quantity, they'll be cheaper and build faster, but you won't have dozens of each of them eating supplies while sitting around doing nothing.

 

[Poopfaust]

Excellent. So having zero Supplies is not detrimental - other than combat situations? Great tips, thanks.

 

[Poopfaust]

Is there a way to fix the fractured gov't given the mix of ministers are missing some parties? I am a little confused about this despite reading the WIKI. Thank you.

 

[Wraith11B]

What do you mean about the mix of ministers are missing some parties?

 

[Poopfaust]

Some of the blue colored parties state that they are eligible for a minister or two. The only colors I see next to the available ministers are greys and blacks.

 

[Wraith11B]

Sounds like that's a problem that is because of your overall government: the national socialist and other single party systems will not allow non-party or adjacent parties ministers. I admit, it's a limitation of the system that 'fractured government' is subject to parliamentary rules like that.