Germany and the World War II

[Lord Martin]

Hi!

I´m gonna tell you with mostly pictures about my first game of HoI 3 ever. I wasn´t planing to do an AAR out of this so the first screens are from 1938.
Since this is my first game I will probably do some strange things, but hey, there is noting as fun as to try a game for the first time (if you don´t count the Demo) I will do everything manual, so no AI help.

Country: Germany
Version: 1.1
Normal

Anyway, lets start.

GERMANY AND THE WORLD WAR II

In May 1938 Germany had already rearmed the Rhineland (April 1936), annexed Austria (April 1937) and now taken the Sudet land from Czechoslovakia.
As we can see German divisions are guarding the major borders. In central Germany a few powerful Armor-divisions are on stand-by, ready to move if some unexpected crises occur.
But Germany is still a "paper tiger". The Army is stretched and weak, and many more division are needed.

The Axis are made of Germany, Italy and it´s puppet Ethiopia (Yes they choose to puppet in in 1936) and Nationalist Spain. The last namned won the spanish civil war after a short struggle with the republicans.
The good thing is that we now have France caught on three fronts, and when the war comes, the Axis will surly crush it!
Germany also tries to influence Sweden and Romania.

The Allies are made of UK, France, South Africa and Poland. No big sursprise here, and The Comintern by the usuall members of Soviet, Mongolia and Tannu Tuva.

The production is probably a mess, but the newborn Germany (read: Lord Martin) wanted to try it´s new wings on everything at once.
Germany is rich of energy and they have no trubble to trade for Metal, Oil and other stuff they need.

And last, the politics. Not anything strange here. Germany goes for Schacht as armament minister for his +10 % IC.
The NSDAP are strong and shouldn´t have any problem to maintain as the ruling party in Germany.

To be continue...

 

[MastahCheef117]

Awesome.

"The World War II"? lol sorry, couldn't resist

 

[ComTrav]

I'm interested in how you balanced your leadership in the interwar years--this was an issue I really struggled with. I also see you're sitting on 103 percent leadership, too.

I realize this might sound crazy, but I think you might want to switch out Armored Spearhead once war starts. In my (limited) experience, Armor Practical is really easy to get/build up. A 'toothpaste' (fights decay!) for some other area, or a minister that gives a combat bonus, might be better for the war.

I guess I'd like to see an SS of your research screen.

 

[Lord Martin]

I'm interested in how you balanced your leadership in the interwar years--this was an issue I really struggled with. I also see you're sitting on 103 percent leadership, too.

Yeah that´s a tough one. I did go for around 11 on Research, 4-5 on espionage, 4-6 on diplomacy and the rest for officers. As Germany expanded and my armies grow I put all other points in Research and Officers.
But there is much room for experiment here to find the ideal balance. Espionage seems to be important for making the Anschluss early (I think) and diplomacy seems good to prevent certain nations joining the allies early.
I´m not yet sure how important officer rate is yet.
As we will see soon my rate shrinks below 100%.

I guess I'd like to see an SS of your research screen.

I don´t have anyone for this date, but I will post some later on.

 

[Lord Martin]

In the east

A short update about the war in east Asia.

In the east China and Japan had gone into war.

But Japan was seriously beaten and the communist fraction managed to beat back the japanese invaders and even forced the japanese puppet state of Manchukuo to surrender. But some japanese forces was left, but isolated, in Manchuku. A japanese force from Korea tried to break through the chinese lines to help them.

But unfortunately for the japanese the resque attempt was a failure and now the imperial army was forced to defend Korea itself. And large part of the north east China was now in the hands of communist China, who also had joined the Comintern.

 

[stnylan]

Will follow. There are some fairly early trends to Axis AI behaviour, and it will be interesting to see how you compare

 

[ComTrav]

Poor Japan gets trucked in the Far East again =(.

 

[MonJoe]

So Communist China didn't puppet Manchuria? In my game they did but its alliance with Japan wasn't cancelled so they declared war on the Chinas again.

 

[Lord Martin]

So Communist China didn't puppet Manchuria? In my game they did but its alliance with Japan wasn't cancelled so they declared war on the Chinas again.

Well, they didn´t do that mistake in my game

 

[Lord Martin]

The road to war

The next target for Germany was the remains of Czechoslovakia. After the lose of the Sudet land, with all it´s fortifications, Czechoslovakia was just a pale shadow of its former self, and the germans could easily break the country. The nation of Slovakia was created, Bohemia and Moravia was added to the Third reich and the eastern parts was taken by Hungaria.
The German armies could now also transfer its strong divisions that had guarded the Czechoslovakian border to new front. Most of them was moved to the polish border and some Corps to the french border.

Italy had not been idle. To counter Germany and to expand it´s own power Italy did conquer Albania, perhaps to make it a springboard for an italian offensive on the Balkan.

Germany and Soviet finally agrees on the future for eastern Europe.

And now, in January 1936, it finally looks like Germany will draw it´s sword. The country did mobilize and did prepare for war!

 

[stnylan]

All set for a mightly conflagration.

 

[Saithis]

Aww, poor Japan.

Looks interesting, I'll keep an eye on things. I'm interested in seeing how different factions of the game interact.

 

[Lord Martin]

The last days before the war

While the German army and its airforce waited for the winter to end some important events occured.

In Syria an uprise against France took place, and the independent nation of Syria was announced. But France did not accept this and a war between those nations was unavoidable.

The German intellegence didn´t know if it was because of the Syrian crises or to counter spanish and/or italian divisions, but suddenly a gap in the french lines was found.
Because of this unbelieveable opportonity a bold German plan was born. If the german army could make a fast strike through the Maginot line at the same time as a strike through Belgium there was a good chance to encircle the whole Maginot line with minimum losses.
The plan was bold and risky, because the german reserves was very limited, only a small Army corps of 4-5 division at the belgium borders could help in the attack. But if the attack succeded, the heartland of France would be in the reach.

But things didn´t go as planned. Just a few days after the gap was discovered, and before the weather in Poland was good enough to commit an offensive the Netherlands joined the allies.

The dutch army was not large, but even so it had twice as many divisions at its border then Germany had. Therefore Germany was forced to take the reserves at the belgium border and move them north to stop any potential dutch offensiv.
The opportonity to take out Maginot seemes to be lost.

And lost was also Korea. Just a few japanese beachheads was left, and soon to be gone.

 

[stnylan]

I must say, I do like how the Allies go about building themselves up int eh game, even if some slightly odd choices occasionally occur (not that the Netherlands is odd).

Shame it gets in the way of the opportunism.

 

[Snapze]

ahhh, nice reading I'm going to follow this. Kepp up the good work! Encircelment of the whole maginot-line would have been a huge blow against the allies, to bad it didn't work out

 

[TheHyphenated1]

Interesting start. Good luck as you cope with the lost opportunities against France!

 

[Myth]

That hole in the Maginot Line looks like something you could easily exploit come war, if it's still around.

 

[Lord Martin]

Thanks for the comments ppl!

But let us now go to war!

 

[Lord Martin]

WAR

Finally the German warmachine was ready for the allies. The Soviet was neutralized with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement and a conflict with the Comintern over the destiny of Poland was out of the way.
Germany decided not to involve its axis allies (Italy, Spain and the puppet states of Slovakia and Ethipia) in the war yet.*

*Note: One of the reasons behind this was aside from gameplay issues, that I didn´t know how any potential Vichy event would modeled in the game.

Poland was quickly diveded and approximately 2/3 of the polish army was caught in the large "western kessel". The resistance was very weak and even if the german division was spread out thin in the east there was no major risk for any serious polish counteroffensive.

On the western front the few german divisions attacked through the undefended southern Maginot line. Even if the plan to attack through Belgium was abandoned, ther was still a chance to encircle the northen Maginot line with an attack from the south.
But after a succesful start the french reserve divisons appeard on the scen. France did apparently have reserved behind it´s line. And those forced the german divisons to a halt, and in the end even to retreat back to the newly captured Maginot line. When the German command saw that they was secretly relieved that they hadn´t decleared war against Belgium and tried to strike from the north. Such attempt with limited divisions would certainly been a failure. But now, with the gains on the southern front, a new way was opened into France. With that in mind the german command didn´t try any offensive operations before the fall of Poland.

And the fall of Poland was now close. Warzaw was encircled and it´s fall was soon to be.

And so it was done. Eastern Poland was in the hands of the soviets, and the western parts in the german hands. Now it was time to transfer ther eastern division to the western front.

 

[Myth]

Quick work in Poland! Are you going for France this year or in 1940?