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marxianTJ

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Apr 11, 2011
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So, no super content in this first post, because my idea here is a little experimental. In essence, what I'll be doing is playing:

Vanilla Hoi3 TFH,
Normal Difficulty,
Germany - to start. USSR after ~Feb/March 1940. The end goal being an Axis defeat (including Japan).

The Meat: I will play Germany to the best of my ability, but remain loosely historical, building up what I think is a pretty formidable Germany. I may also ask for suggestions from more experienced players periodically (I honestly don't play Germany that often so I'm tentative about a few things). Then, once the Winter War between the USSR and Finland has concluded *and* the historical invasions of Poland, Denmark, and Norway by Germany have concluded, I will stop playing as Germany.

I will then play through the rest of the game (come what may) as the USSR.

In short, I will give myself roughly 1 1/2 years to try to get the formerly AI's USSR into fighting shape to take on a Germany, built on a solid foundation, and her Axis allies. It's up to the German AI not to flub the invasion of France - but I think it can handle that.

I don't presume that any real nasty error will be coming my way - but I don't want to run a test game through the USSR portion, in order to increase the drama, because I'm reasonably sure there will be a pretty significant chance of defeat for the USSR lol.

As a result, I'll document *how* I build up Germany perhaps a bit more than some other AARs do (since building up Germany is kind of passé for AARs after so many years I imagine lol).

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Germany: The Beginning
Jan 1st: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22262469
4 Months Update: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22262553
1936 Wrap Up: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22264175
All of 1937: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22264330
Anschluss et al: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22264726
The End of Peace: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22265084

Part2: Germany - The Second World War
Battle Plans: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22265169
War on Poland!: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...n-an-experiment-in-aars.991797/#post-22265350
War on Denmark!: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22267032
War on Norway!: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22267133
The Winter War: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22267225
Germany in Review: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22267388

Part3: The Soviet Union - A Tense Peace
The Soviet Economy: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22268163
The Red Navy and Air Force: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22268346
The Red Army: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-2#post-22268399
1940 Part 1: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22270222
1940 Part 2: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22270643
To March 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271063
The Arkhangelsk Front: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271170
The Leningrad Front: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271303
The Kiev Front: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271402
The Odessa Front: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271441
The Eastern Fronts: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271474
Final Preparations: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22271556

Part4: Soviet Union - The Great Patriotic War
May 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22273055
June 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22274738
July 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-3#post-22275612
August 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-4#post-22278842
September 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-4#post-22279311
October 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-4#post-22281851
November 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-4#post-22282927
December 1941: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-4#post-22284716
January 1942: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22286017
February 1942: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22288378
March 1942: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22289130
April 1942: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22289610
Preparations for May Offensive: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22289876
May 1942: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22290112

Part 5: An End to War
Ep. 1: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-5#post-22292095
Ep. 2: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-6#post-22292553
Ep. 3, Invasion of Italy: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-6#post-22292804
Ep. 4, Preparations for War with Japan: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-6#post-22292941
Ep. 5, The end: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-6#post-22293011

In Closing: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...xperiment-in-aars.991797/page-6#post-22293060
 
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On board with this friend. I think this is a great strategy for a Story. I've tried it once with a save from my Early Rising Sun and played the U.S. for a month but I had done too much damage and had no save to back up a bit, so I canned the idea.

Looking forward to see how this goes.
 
Though the eastern front is a thoroughly covered track in HOI3 by now, I quite like this idea, so I'm on board. Good luck beating you self-created nightmare!
 
Germany - to start. USSR after ~Feb/March 1940.

I have read exactly that proposition somewhere as a way to have a real difficult game once the "normal-very hard" does not suffice.
I am so far from beeing able to do that that I will watch gladly how somebody else fares.
Definetly subscribed.:cool:
 
Alright now we begin. I will post updates as they come down the pipeline - they may be big or small. I'll also keep images in these early stages to a minimum since I imagine a lot of these things have been seen before and described much more eloquently than I can.

Germany, Jan 1st, 1936. I'll go through each screen in order and talk loosely about my objectives.

1. Diplomacy.

Primary trade partners: USA and USSR. The goal here, is to stock up on rares and metals so that AI Germany should be able to make as many mistakes as possible and still not lose IC due to resource shortage. The AI will hopefully also continue to make these trades after I am gone or until war stops commerce. I know some folks prefer to utilize the Netherlands, but since I will be leaving the helm, I assume AI Germany may attack them regardless (unless I managed to get them into the Axis swiftly - which isn't something I want to bank on).

Influence through trade: I will attempt to heavily influence Romania, Persia, Bulgaria, Portugal, Nationalist Spain (should they win), Yugoslavia, and Sweden (if there's enough left over) with trade. I'll execute this by way of making small deals to attempt to get relations as high as possible to increase drift. I would also *very* much like to get Yugoslavia to join the Axis - so that the AI doesn't have to bother with defending Yugoslavia, creating Croatia, or dealing with Partisan issues.

Landing Crafts: As soon as is feasible I will place an order for 7-8 landing crafts from Japan. This will be Germany's transport fleet.

Diplomatic Influence: I won't be utilizing diplomatic influence on any nation.

2. Politics.

Ministers:

Ho_I3_3.jpg


(Note: I left Werner von Fritsch in place because my armor practical is fairly low and I want to get it high quickly, when the day comes that my Armor practical is high enough, he will be replaced).


Laws: As soon as trade bears us enough fruit, I'll change 2 laws in particular. For all of 1936, and perhaps a sliver of 1937, I will be using Volunteer Army so that I can pump out units, and get my practicals high. I will also make the switch to Mixed Industry to take advantage of the +% to supplies (which I will be selling in bulk to the USA and USSR) and the production efficiency bonus.

3. Espionage.

My espionage strategy will not be as robust as it *could* be, but I can't wait for long-term plans to bear fruit - because the AI may decide to stop. So, I want to get the biggest bang for my buck. I also won't be investing a ton of leadership into espionage. Just enough to keep things going.

The UK - I will be increasing it's threat and committing anti-espionage activities against them starting immediately.
France - I will be committing anti-espionage activities, and reducing their national unity. Because of their free press laws, I think this will be fairly effective (that and it's already so low to start!).
Austria - Support our party and counter-espionage.
USA - Although it will be an expensive vanity project (I decided either USA or USSR because of the cost of spying on/against them) their free press laws make me think maybe messing around with their national unity could be quite interesting - as opposed to trying to get the Fascists to win the elections and getting the USA to drift to the Axis (which would be expensive and wouldn't pan out for ages or not at all if the AI didn't get the idea).
-= If I end up with a large amount of free spies =- I will increase the threat of the USSR as well to further increase pro-Axis sentiment in the world.

4. Production.

The meat and potatoes. Since it's only day one rather than get into specifics straight away I'll talk about my general intentions.

I will not be building *that* much IC. Some IC will certainly be built - somewhere in the order of 5-10 ICs. I will however be raising my construction practical by way of building 19 separate instances of infrastructure - all in the East and South of Germany. I want the construction practical to be fairly high because I suspect the AI may want to build some air fields/fortifications that I will not, and so I don't want it to be an undue punishment to the AI in the future. I also don't have a great deal of faith in the AI's ability to maintain its resource stockpiles if I go hog-wild building IC, nor do I have faith that it would be able to right itself with 1-2 years of production backlog.

Army: I will be upgrade a goodly portion of the extant standing army infantry divisions (and the 1 garrison division that is attached to the Heers HQ) into motorized divisions. Because manpower is a concern (particularly because I'll be on volunteer army for a year) I also will be using a 2x 2x division structure. 2xINF + ART + AT. I will also be building quite a number of tank divisions my goal is to have over 50 total MARM/HARM/LARM divisions. I will also build a small number of Garrison divisions and also 2x CAV divisions - hopefully the AI will figure out how to use them.

Air Force: I intend to build a *mostly* light air craft based Luftwaffe. Mainly because the light air practical starts out extremely high for Germany (10) and because fighters are so essential to Germany's survival. I will however research and supply at least 2 TRA planes. My production will mainly focus on INT and CAS with a smattering of MRF (I would build far more normally, but the AI sometimes gets confused on how to use them so I don't want to burden it with tons of MRFs) and TACs if research allows for it - but I don't plan on building any more TAC wings as of yet. I may also produce one set of 4 NAVs if IC is available.

Navy: The AI often builds quite a number of subs, and I fear that if I don't follow the same procedure it will build tons of subs to the exclusion of much else. So, I will be building a number of subs as well as cruisers, both CAs and CLs, to help Germany achieve her objectives. Also, there will be 7-8 landing crafts purchased from Japan, as well as the Bismark and Tirpitz because they're fun.

5. Organizational Affairs.

The OOB isn't to my liking and I'll be placing all of Germany under a single command with the goal being to reduce supply consumption as much as possible to save on IC (since we're trading supplies for money).
 
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Lightning fast while I'm at it since it's still the early days yet :D

Everything up to May 9th, 1936. ~5 months in.

On January 4th, Germany Reoccupied the Rhineland sending shock-waves through European politics.

Diplomatic News:

Meanwhile, because of stringent, and probably, unnecessarily expensive, trade programs, Germany has managed to attain the following resource flow:

+145 Energy/Day, +116 Metal/Day, +63 Rares per day, +22 Crude Oil (yeah, I know it's a waste, but Persia only wanted to sell me crude), +4 fuel per day (I sold a bunch to make money), and +.36$ a day in income. 15 IC into supplies are required to keep our supplies in the green. I may sell a bit more energy here and there, but for the most part I'm happy with these levels.

To boot our relations are now as follows:

Bulgaria: 150 - 5.7 Axis Drift
Persia: 195 - 8.47 Axis Drift
Portugal: 195 - 5.9 Axis Drift
Romania: 200 - 3.9 Axis Drift (surprised at this because of their Blue-type government and my threat)
Sweden: 195 - 5.9 Axis Drift
USA: 195 - 1.75 Axis Drift (they were a HUGE PAIN for several months; not wanting to do business).
Yugo: 195 - 6.03 Axis Drift


Germany also launched 1 Submarine group, a destroyer flotilla, and the Graff Spee along with a number of art/at brigades and infantry divisions.... and 1 INT wing.

Espionage:

Despite a great success in dropping the USA's national unity below 80% (according to reports), they're simply too good at killing my spies, and I have no desire to invest significantly in spies beyond this "starting" period, so the network in the USA will be abandoned. Maybe in a future game I'll really dedicate myself to ruining the US's NU and see what sort of wacky thing happens.

The NSDAP has 4% popularity in Austria.... It seems the NSDAP operatives in Austria are laughably inept. Why the Communists have the same amount of support as the NSDAP, FOR SHAME!

France's National Unity is now in the toilette I believe is the proper French terminology, with a NU of (according to intelligence reports) 37%. (I cheated and checked for posterity's sake using a tag switch - It's *far* worse than the spies report! Their NU is sitting at 33.9% - so since Jan 1st (4 months and 8 days), we've managed to drop their NU a complete percentage point - that's pretty devastating if you ask me).

On the Bright Side or Not: I've had a slew of random events - 2 of which reduced my leadership for a time (forcing more LS into diplomacy than I would've liked) and 1 of which has reduced my money for a time (printing press decision). Due to the nature of what I intend to do here - these are both blessing and curse!
 
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Also as a third post while I'm at it lol - Thanks for all the interest folks :D Hopefully it's a wild ride and not an instantaneous knock out lol. I'm really dreading what I'll find on the other side of this AAR - fingers crossed I don't find a USSR laden with shiny new coastal forts.

I'm sure Markkur you're going to feel my pain after playing your UK 39' game with the Soviet OOB I'm going to find in a few updates lol.

Indeed Sebas, there have really been some wonderful Eastern Front AARs both recent and not-so-recent. Not really trying to compete with them, since this will be more of a proof of concept with some flavor added in. Maybe it'll be an amazing game - maybe it will be a complete disaster the fun part is nobody knows :D lol.

I'm honestly surprised, and a bit worried, that this sort of thing isn't more common Count. I've heard of all variations of N/H/VH/emu hard + various mods and tweaks, bans, rules, etc. But I've never really seen this sort of thing discussed in detail before. Maybe I'll find out why lol.

Also feel free to comment as much as you like - I'm by no means all that experienced at playing Germany - so if you have anything you want to relay by all means do so.

Annd..... Time for the first question. I put 5-8 IC in the queue - when they're complete where should I place them. I was thinking butting up against the Czech or Polish border wouldn't be a bad spot - but do you folks have a special set of provinces you like to set them down in?
 
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A solid start I think.
This type of game is mentioned every now and then, but useually people switch from Germany to the USA, because the USA is so grossly overpowered that it steamrolls everyone if you don't prop up Germany. The Soviets can be moderatly challenging in and of themselves, which can be improved on in different ways than strenghtening Germany per se.

I generally put any new IC as Germany in the exact region you mentioned, spread over several provinces to avoid making one massive IC blob that could easily be bombed to oblivion if an enemy gets STRAT in range. The further from British airfields you build them, the better.
 
The last of 1936 to February 1937.

Diplomatic Front: So far our ingenious trade program is still in-tact, none of our trade partners have backed out on us - this has had a remarkable effect on world affairs. The US continues to drift Axis, while the rest of our trade partners (including Sweden) drift strongly Axis - Portugal is even closely enough aligned to provide us with Tungsten if their neutrality were lower. Germany continues to horde resources at the amounts noted in the previous update.

International Affairs: Our reoccupation of the Rhineland, and the resulting French Popular Front government, and on Jan 1st, 37' the Great Officer Purge in the USSR, were the only remarkable occurrences in international affairs. (No Spanish Civil War as of yet).

The Espionage Front: Our propaganda campaign against the British has been highly effective. Even the people of the United States have come to see the imperialist barbarism of the United Kingdom for what it truly is - the highest threat to peace in the world today! The campaign is also having a remarkable effect on the sensibilities of those in the Balkans and Middle East.

We ceased all operations in the United States and sadly, our agents were not able to preserve themselves.

In an amazing reversal of fortune, the NSDAP is now the most popular party in Austria. It is still not strong enough to hold a majority however at 23% support according to our agents.

In France our campaign of disunity is working out splendidly, our spies estimate a unity of 41%, but I suspect they are far too modest! (For posterity's sake I checked... it is actually 36%)

-= I feel I should explain my thoughts outside of the context of the AAR. I aim to leave Germany *after* I am, or should be anyways, at war with France. I fear that if France is as powerful as it normally is, the total chaos that will surely ensue once I vacate control of Germany could cause a military catastrophe on the Siegfried line that would de-rail the game, so I aim to make France as weak an opponent as possible. This is also why I didn't raise threat of FRA - even though it would reduce my neutrality faster to do so. =-

The majority of events related to production and technology. I will make appraisals of these in future updates; suffice to say the notable achievements of German industry were over this period as follows: Construction of INT and CAS wings, 1 TRA plane, several tank divisions of the LARM type, and number of submarine squadrons, on August 30th we laid down the hulk of what will become the mighty Bismarck - a ship that should make those fools to the west of us quake in fear - on the same day our shipyards also produced the first Japanese style Landing Craft for our future transport fleet. 3 CA's were also launched in total over the course of 36' giving the Kriegsmarine giving us a total of 5 Hipper class CAs.

Our first modest run of 5 IC has also finished up in October of 36' and was placed near the Czech/Polish border region.

Sadly, our army is expanding so rapidly that our officer corps is well beyond depleted at 73% coverage - we'll have to amend this situation in 37'-38' to make up for our crash arms expansion program.

Politics and Government: On Jan 1st, Joachim von Ribbentrop was made our minister for foreign affairs. We also instituted a 3 year draft - the influx of the youth of Germany should aid us in our quest to both expand the armed forces *and* the officers that command them.
 
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The Whole of 1937.

1937 was a year filled with work - I'll generalize about what happened and then talk about world events since I notice folks tend to like those things.

Technology: We researched a number of "Theory" techs to boost our teching speed in Armor, Submarines, and Industrial pursuits. All of the important industrial techs were researched ahead of time and finished at some point in 1937 in various stages. Our officer ratio is recovering swiftly and is at 125% coverage.

Production: Our goal of 80-85 Infantry divisions, and 50 LARM/MARM/HARM divisions is on track to be completed well before the cut-off date. We presently have 75 Infantry divisions in various stages of completion (about 15 need their AT+ART attachments yet). We have a total of 22 armored divisions of various sorts completed - so we're nearly 1/2 way to our goal. A number of Cruisers have been laid down or launched. 5 more IC were also completed during 1937 and laid down on the Czech-Polish border region.

Government/Politics: von Fritsch was replaced as chief of the army by Werner von Blomberg (-10% supply consumption) on August 13th 1937.

Diplomatic Front:

The US:
continues to slowly drift Axis (1.15), unfortunately the American people no longer heed our warnings about British imperialism, and instead regard the Japanese as the largest threat to peace.
Portugal: Is extremely close to the Axis corner, and has endured British attempts to dissuade them (they were still drifting Axis even whilst under UK influence). They also have started buying production licenses from me - a welcome cash influx.
Persia and Romania: Unfortunately, the British have begun influencing them, and our trade missions are unable to overcome the power of the English pound - both are drifting allies under UK influence.
Bulgaria and Yugoslavia: Both are still drifting Axis solidly, though are not as closely aligned as Portugal.
Sweden: The USSR has been influencing them for quite some time now, and they are drifting Comintern.

War in Spain!

On April 16th 1937, patriots in Spain rebelled against their corrupted government - we immediately provided them with aid.

By July 6th, the Nationalists had completely encircled the Republican capital of Madrid - with our aid this war has been swift and just.

Ho_I3_8.jpg


The war was officially declared over on September 23rd. The war lasted only 5 months ending in a Nationalist victory.... Unfortunately the Nationalists are not overly receptive to our trade missions despite our vital aid in their civil war! We will keep up our attempts.

War in Asia!

On September 15th, Japan declared war on Nationalist China and her hangers-on. They were invited to join the Anti-Comintern Pact and accepted on the same day. The war seems to be going very well for Japan.

-= they haven't lost any ships yet (that's the only real thing in TFH that Japan can manage to have befall them that's negative in my experience) =-

The Berlin-Rome Axis is formed!

On December 7th, 1937 we invited Italy to join our Anti-Comintern Pact and they accepted.

-=The Italians were actually a bit late because they cancelled some of my deals and I didn't have the cash to renew them! =-

The Axis now includes: Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Espionage:

Many nations throughout the world (South America, the Balkans, the Middle-East) still regard the UK as the greatest threat to world peace - despite the Japanese war in China.
(This includes Romania).

The NSDAP is incredibly popular in Austria at 32%
-= The Anschluss decision is available, but I'm going to delay until the historical date=-

France's National Unity is at 28.8% according to our spies a resounding success!
-=it's actually 30% they didn't overestimate the French for once :( - France is completely powerless to stop this activity - they have no domestic spies to raise their NU, and Lebrun, and their Free Press laws make my spies even more effective!) The reason this is so dastardly is because it's 1938 now and France has been on full civilian economy for 2 years - they only have about 30-35 IC available for production (the rest going into supplies and consumer goods)=-
 
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1938: Anschluss et al

1938 was a year filled with events, building, and researching.

The Diplomatic Front:

On Feb. 11th, 1938, a rather unexpected thing happened in that Sinkiang joined the Comintern - their fear of the UK's meddling threw them right into the arms of the USSR, sad!

On March 1st -=not exactly historical but this is usually about when AI Germany does it=-, Germany carried out the "Anschluss" of Austria - we gained a number of divisions and one INT wing, among other benefits.

On Sept., 12, our Japanese friends received the formal surrender of the Nationalist Chinese.

Ho_I3_8.jpg



In another unexpected development - Fascists have won the elections in Chile, through no fault of our own, and are now drifting solidly Axis.

On September 15th, we signed the Munich agreement granting us the so-called Sudetenland.

Meanwhile our trade policies have resulted in every one of our targets solidly drifting Axis with many close to enough to join the Axis if they were more war-like - with the exception of Romania who has been under constant influence from the UK for the entire year. The US also continues to drift Axis.

Production:

We have met our INT, INF, and LARM production goals. We also laid down the Tirpitz - even more massive and well armed than her humongous sister the Bismarck as well. The transport fleet, and a marine arm for the Kriegsmarine have all been finished. Our big hurdle is building enough SPART to accommodate our extant MARM divisions. -= if you like details these will come in another update before the war with Poland=- Upgrades will also have to be done at some point.

Espionage:

We have begun to lose spies in the UK, but will not be making any special effort to replace them. Many nations are influenced by our propaganda still.

France's National Unity is 25.8 according to our spies -=it is actually 27.5=- Their economy is completely crippled by discontent.


Onwards to 1939 where everything will come to a head - I will likely do one more explanatory update to cover the period from Jan-August of 39' and then updates will become more irregular since we'll have a war to focus on :D
 
I'm just getting back into the HoI3 AAR scene, and though I'm more of a fan of the straight-history-book style, I enjoyed what you have so far!

I think that Loki100 did something like this a while ago... and I know that there was another guy who did this with Germany-US... it had amazing graphics that the guy put together (almost overkill, I think, but boy were they fabulous!).
 
I can't really motivate myself to go too in-depth with the Germany side of things because I suspect all of the things I'd normally pay attention to will be long gone before we meet in battle. But I'll put more of a flourish on the Soviet side of things, since I'll be on that boat until the end and will be spending a lot more time with them lol. When I surrender Germany to the AI I'll feel like somebody who has to give up their prize cow at the end of the fair! lol. I don't want to get too attached.
 
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Jan 1st - August of 1939: The End of Peace.

Production:

As the prospect of war looms closer with every passing day, more and more IC has been put into upgrades, but many units are still woefully far behind.

Espionage:

Most of our spy networks have been cleared out 8 operatives remain in the UK, and 5 in France. The operatives in France report that national unity there is.... 12%. Such a figure can hardly be believed, for if it is true, any war will be over in the blink of an eye.

Diplomacy:

Portugal is now close enough to join the Axis, but refuses to do so. Unfortunately Sweden and Romania and now drifting solidly towards the Allies. -=My ignoring Hungary has also lead them to not be in the Axis yet, which is typically already occurred by the invasion of Poland.=- The Americans are likewise drifting in such a direction.

Events:

On March 5th, we annexed Czechoslovakia through the 1st Vienna award. The UK responded by guaranteeing the independence of Poland.
On the same day we claimed Memel from Lithuania.

On March 29th, South Africa joined the allies.

On August the 1st, we signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the USSR... and mobilized for war...

But most importantly, (so important it was saved for last!) on April first, we launched the mighty Bismarck!

Ho_I3_13.jpg




So, after 3 years of extensive preparations what do we have as of August 1st?

Luftwaffe:

5 CAS
16 INT
2 MRFs
8 TACs
1 TRA


Kriegsmarine:

1 BB - The Bismarck, the Pride of the Fleet! (Tirpitz is due to launch July 2nd 1940).
2 BC - Schleisen, Schleswig-Holstein.
6 CA - Admiral Hipper, Graf Spee, Deutschland, Blucher, Friedrich Karl, and Admiral Scheer.
11 CL - 6 type IV, 4 type III, and 1 type II.
5 DD - 2 type II, 3 type I.
6 LC - 2 more in the queue - not in production
11 SS - 3 type IV, 4 type III, 3 type II, 1 type I.

Heer:
-= rather than go by brigade types I'll simply state what I have in a less extensive way=-

18 MARM divisions consisting of: 1xARM, 2xMOT, 1 SPART
25 LARM divisions, consisting of: 1xLARM, 2xMOT, 1 AC
87 INF divisions, the majority consisting of 2x INF, ART, AT, with 7 consisting of 3x INF, ART.
10 GAR divisions, consisting of 3x GAR + ART.
1 CAV division, consisting of 2x CAV.


So ends Part 1.
 
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Part2: Germany - The Second World War

Battle Plans and Preparations for War with the Allies.

Here you see roughly the plan I will use to invade Poland - the goal is to rapidly breakthrough and encircle Warsaw, and hopefully avoid any fights over rivers. The exceedingly large arrows represent the tank forces.

Ho_I3_15.jpg


Army Group Prussia (von Weichs) consists of:
1 Army (Schneiwindt)
3 Corps consisting of 10 divisions of infantry.
1 flight of CAS consisting of 4 wings.

Army Group East (Rommel) consists of:
2 Armies (von Rundstedt, von Kluger)
- 8 Corps, consisting of 32 divisions of Infantry
3 Tank Armies (von Manstein, Guderian, von Schweppenburg)
- 9 Corps, consisting of 18 MARM divisions and 25 LARM divisions

2 flights of TAC, consisting of 4 wings each.
1 flight of INTs, consisting of 4 wings.

The Blockade of Poland will be carried out by two fleets operating in trandem to both blockade Poland and bombard Danzig.

The fleets are:

Battlegroup: Bismarck (Raeder)
Bismark, Graf Spee, Admiral Sheer, Deutschland, with 9 screens (CLs and DDs)

Battlegroup: Schlesien (Bohm)
Schlesien, Schleswig-Holstein, Admiral Hipper, Blucher, Friedrich Karl, and 7 Screens (CLs and DDs)

As for the defense of the West and North, should the Allies make good their promise to defend Poland:

Here you see we have no intention of fighting until operational victory is achieved in the East:

Ho_I3_16.jpg



Army Group North (Busch) consists of:
1 Army (Schorner)
2 Corps containing 8 divisions of Infantry, and 2 divisions of Marines

Army Group West (Model) consists of:
2 Armies (Hopner, Nehring) which consist of:
8 Corps, containing 33 divisions of Infantry

3 flights of INT each containing 4 wings each.

Now for fun, the mostly unintelligible Air Coverage Map!

Ho_I3_17.jpg



We have 27 days to prepare!
 
War on Poland and the Allies!
0901_big.gif


(The NYT from Sept 1st, 1939)

At 6 AM on September the 1st, Germany demanded the Free City of Danzig - or promised that there would be war. The Poles have chosen war. Their erstwhile allies have declared war on Germany in turn.

Immediately, our people were informed that they would have to make certain sacrifices in times such as these and new laws were enacted:

Ho_I3_19.jpg

-= I fired Blitzkrieg because the AI usually does this as well, and I'm not sure it would use it for anything good even if I left it sit there so may as well use it on Poland!=-

The Kriegsmarine was hard at work - as the Battlefleets headed for Danzig to Blockade the Poles, our silent u-boats headed for the Atlantic to throttle the British economy. We've also been forced to call the entirety of the German Merchant Marine fleet home. This required cancelling a number of lucrative trade deals to preserve our convoys.

Ho_I3_20.jpg


Just two hours into the war, our generals reported back to Heers command that 6 separate Polish lines had been vacated! 6 separate victories with hardly any casualties for Germany.

By 19:00 hours we had received reports from the Kriegsmarine that the first convoys of the war had been sunk - ironically they were convoys flying the Polish flag.

On Sept. 4th, Canada announced that it would join the war against Germany. This announcement did little to help the Poles however, as they lost both Katowice and Lodz before nightfall of that date.

At 9 AM on September the 5th, Generals Eicke and von Witzleben announced that the Polish defenders in Warsaw had retreated in the face of our crack Waffen SS troops under their respective commands.

At 10 AM on the 5th, the Slovaks joined us in the fight!

At 2 AM on the 6th, German troops under the command of Major General Eicke occupied Warsaw.

The Polish are completely routed, the entity that refers to itself as the Polish army has been completely encircled in several different pockets.

Ho_I3_30.jpg



And at 1 AM, on the 7th of September, the Polish government vacated Poland and the Polish armed forces were instructed to evacuate Poland.

Ho_I3_32.jpg



Poland withstood a little less than a week of combat against the mighty Wehrmacht - now we turn our attention elsewhere.


-= I know the statistics are a bit wonky on the war losses page but if you're interested in them here they are=-

We have sunk, in less than a week at war, 22,000 tons of British Shipping

We lost 13.9 IC in the war... and 3.5 manpower.
 
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Wow, that was truly a blitz attack on poland.

Regarding the blitzkrieg decision, i think the ai would have fired it as soon as you hand them control. But it shouldnt matter too much, ths Germany should be easily capable of smashing France with ease. The eastern front is going to be very interesting indeed.
 
Wow, that was truly a blitz attack on poland.

Absolutly, here a player demonstrated what happens once you know the game.
Poland vs Germany is like taking away a lolly from a toddler.

We shall see if this will change once the player changes sides.;)
 
I'm sure Markkur you're going to feel my pain after playing your UK 39' game with the Soviet OOB I'm going to find in a few updates lol.
You got that right. I cringed and winced when I thought about what you will need to do... as a matter of fact the cringe has not left completely. As you said...related to Wth? of both our games.:D

We ceased all operations in the United States and sadly, our agents were not able to preserve themselves.
If there is any "Supermen" in the game it has to be the US anti-espionage spies. I don't even bother anymore, I love my Research too much.<L>

Wow, that was truly a blitz attack on poland.
Seconded and now thirded. My 1st time as Germany...over 3 weeks. Last time probably still near two.
Bravo! However, I know you're really looking forward to commanding Soviet spearheads.;)
 
I don't know if it's my computer/browser that's acting up or what but almost none of your images are showing up... if you're using imgur, might want to use the "Use BBForum Code" link instead as that one worked for me when posting.