Götterdämmerung! - A HoI3 AAR/Guide to Saving Germany

[Guderian1992]

Initially I started this AAR on FTM v3.05 but I faced a tremendous amount of bugs, twice! So, after purchasing the HoI3 Collection, and correcting the TFH.exe issue; I've finally restarted this AAR and in force - not to mention bug free.

The changes between FTM and TFH are huge, and that means I could make a few mistakes but I've already started reading the changelog in detail and hopefully I'll be able to provide a successful experience for you all.

So without further ado, here we go:

Version: TFH v4.02
Difficulty: Hard
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AAR (Live Action) - Table of Contents:

Part I: The Twilight of the Gods
Part II: Perseverance
Part III: Tactical Prowess
Part IV: The Hunter & the Hunted
Part V: The World Ablaze - (Seg. 1 & 2) [B2B]







My OLD AAR/Guide can be found here:

I was thinking about playing then writing an AAR/Guide on how to overturn the immense odds that Germany faces in 1944 under the Gotterdammerung scenario start. What do you guys think? Should I go for it?


Version: FTM v3.05
Difficulty: Hard

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Due to popular support (4 Yay and 0 Nay) I'll go along with this one. Wish me luck!

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AAR (Live Action) - Table of Contents:

A Very Brief Intro

1944:
Let the Hostilities Begin!
The Pushing Game



Guide (Strategic Analysis) - Table of Contents:

Part I - Let the Hostilities Begin

 

[Bleedingorange1]

I think you should.

 

[Hawke0]

I agree.

 

[mosin_nagant]

Subbed

 

[Guderian1992]

Ok, you've all got a deal. Might bump this up to very hard because that's the only way I play my HoI3; except if I'm writing an AAR on it or preparing a guide, this is because most players use the median difficulty(s) of Easy, Normal, & Hard. First round of updates should be either today or tomorrow as I'm current updating my Italy AAR found here https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/an-italian-hoi3-aar-for-the-pastaland.889167/

Thank you guys for you support. I'll be sure to make it as useful of an AAR/Guide as possible with no vague terms or unexplained ideas as I've seen quite a few of those.

Wish me luck.

 

[Guderian1992]

A Very Brief Intro​

In it's absolute form, war is a game that man plays only to risk his own life; for if you don't risk what you love, how will you know it's worth?

Under this personal motto I joined the German army in 1931, two years before the Reich became dominated by the Nazis. Today, thirteen years on from the day I signed up for the army I was asked by the Führer himself to take command of the still powerful Axis armed forces and drive us to victory in Europe. My name is Julius Ringel, and I am the unluckiest man alive.

Such was the set-up of our ministry when I was appointed Chief of the Army and "Supreme Commander of the Axis Forces in Europe". I was immediately tasked with finding a solution to the Russian hordes barraging our Eastern borders. By my estimates at least 4,000,000 Russian men were manning the front at any time, we had just around 2,500,000 men in all of our fronts combined. A tough ask right from the start.

Immediately we had to set up a plan to protect Germany and minimize the fronts that are opened against our nation. We have four fronts that are open currently: (Order from East to West)

1. Finland to Russia Front: Target Murmansk.
2. East Germany to Soviet Union: Hold the Red Defensive Line.
3. France to Normandy Front: Target to Remove Allied Forces From Beachhead.
4. Northern Italy to Southern Italy: Target to Remove Allied Forces from Mainland Italy.

Our forces are divided like so amongst these fronts: [Thumbnails to decrease size of post]



As you can see, we still possess a powerful army, and our leadership is very good, the second best in the world I'd say.

[Our distribution of leadership]

Three, Two, One, Action!​

 

[Guderian1992]

Let the Hostilities Begin!
​

An end to this D-Day blasphemy had to come... I decided to begin the hostilities by attacking along the entire front all at once, overwhelm and shock the enemy, that is the law I will live by against these English speaking fools.

At the very moment that hostilities began in Normandy, we began moving forward on the Italian front as well. This was a war that would wait for no man.

Did someone say encirclement? Watch the Allies as they flee! Flee! Flee!!!!! [My tactics are to use my Armoured divisions to pierce through their lines and encircle whatever armour they have]

Beautiful progress in France. In a few days I can re-organize and redistribute my forces to support the Eastern Front.

State of Germany on July 27, 1944. Everything is going well, apart from Finland's collapse. Romania is getting pierced but I've made arrangements to move 2 panzer divisions to the Romanian border and push those reds back. The Eastern front is holding while Italy is falling over the Allies heads. My troops have made it to Murmansk and we're doing good in holding our own line up there.

The effects of my redeployment are clear. The first is that I've halted the Russian advance by positioning armoured units all over the border. The second is the superb notion that the Romanian front is slowly rolling back up Russia's arse.

And we keep on advancing, we keep on pushing the Russians back - in Romania at least. [To all those who are wondering: Russia has around 4 million troops stationed across Germany's border but they're mainly Infantry and whatever Armour they have is diluted amongst the millions of foot soldiers. An armoured spearhead will always give a positive yield against the Russians. To not get attacked on my flanks I usually hide my spearhead behind my infantry line in a province that I can attack from but can't be flanked, further insuring success]

As I pushed further into Italy, the allies actually attempted to make a D-Day esque landing in some poor Italian port. Just like D-Day, they're practically toast.

On this day, Finland has fallen. On positive note, we're almost done with Italy!

 

[Jagdpnzr]

You delivered precise counter attacks on all fronts and at least set the stage for a possible offensive against the Russians. Have you already planned where the most advantageous location to strike Ivan?

 

[Enewald]

Looking good. You just managed to defeat Operation Overlord with attacking everything you got? Noice.

 

[Guderian1992]

You delivered precise counter attacks on all fronts and at least set the stage for a possible offensive against the Russians. Have you already planned where the most advantageous location to strike Ivan?

Indeed I have sir, my plan is to drive out through Romania as that is my weakest segment according to how the AI thinks. I plan on taking advantage of the poor troop allocation there and bursting through with an armoured spearhead there, two provinces thick and two corpses in capacity. Once their infantry start rolling back there'll be no stopping my Wehrmacht as they march through Russia.

I'm going to be posting a strategic analysis segment after each picture laden post to get my ideas through to the reader a bit better.

Looking good. You just managed to defeat Operation Overlord with attacking everything you got? Noice.

Thank you, time to turn my attention to the Eastern front and maybe liberate Finland before Christmas of 1945.

 

[Guderian1992]

Guide Segment I:
Let the Hostilities Begin!
​

"A strategic analysis segment will follow every picture laden post to discuss the concepts that even photos can't convey."
"

Military Doctrines & Strategy​

Hitler assigned Lt. General Ringel to lead the Wehrmacht in mid-1944. Immediately General Ringel decided to launch a three pronged attack intending to not give the allies a moment's rest, hold the Soviets, and regain the territories lost to the allied advances. Immediately Lt. General Ringel was struck by how the 800K or so men stationed in the OB West were fanned out over all of the country. Even if the OOB West looks like it could control an allied landing - and even incinerate it if you're skilled enough - their response times would be too slow and the allies could really develop a beach front while the armies were still mobilizing.

The first thing Ringel did as the supreme leader of the axis forces in Europe was to reallocate the 10th Army from Southern France to Romania. Most of his forces there were Hungarian or Romanian expeditionary forces and they were ridiculously weak.

"At this difficulty, even with tried and tested German blood, an attack can go south even if you've got the best of odds."

The point of the three simultaneous offensives was to decrease the active fronts to just the Russian front before Finland and Germany's Northern Russian holding of Murmansk was destroyed, and the Russian troops were repositioned to devastating effects. By obliterating Normandy in less than a month Ringel now have around 150,000 men and more importantly tanks that could be repositioned with important strategic effects.

Germany's superior IC compared to Russia's means that in the long run they wont stand a chance especially since Germany's manpower pool will not be running out any time soon. Ringel noticed that support brigades (AT/AA/ART) are absolutely necessary if his forces are to plough through the Russian lines, Engineers can be very useful as well.

"If all starts going south, I'll bring out the famous MOT-MOT-TD-TD to plough through the Russians almost single-handedly, but I won't spam those super troops unless the shit hits the fan in all directions."

Production & Technology Doctrines​

Gemrany's first production run involved cancelling all existing submarines and replacing them them with 10 Motorized brigades, 5 armoured brigades, one interceptor, some convoys, & finally 1 IC just to keep the construction practical flowing. Ringel's technological approach was just to use the 44 points on Infantry, Armour, and Doctrine, and - most importantly - Radar techs (for planes & ships) for now, while the rest is allocated to officers & spies. Spies in this late-game phase play little role other than to disrupt national unity, production, or research.

"If you don't research Radar for planes you'll live to rue the day when an Allied strategic bomber single-handedly shoots down 6 interceptors of yours."

 

[Guderian1992]

The Pushing Game
​

September 28th, 1944. All that Germany owns at the moment can be seen in the above picture. What beautiful progress we've made to recover our position and make a stand for Reich-eousness.

These are Japan's possessions on the same date. They're doing well in China but not so well in Siam & Burma.

About a month later, on October the 22nd of 1944, a spell of odd good weather allowed us to plough through the British lines in Taranto and rid them of their last port on the peninsula excluding Sicily. These suckers have been encircled and will soon be put to rest.

As the war in Italy draws to a close, I can't help but contemplate an offensive into Turkey that would blow the doors of the Baki oil fields straight open. Another front? Perhaps, but not now.

With the Allies at bay Hauser's 7th Army has been repositioned to the capitol Berlin before remobilizing them to the Eastern front. They've served with distinction in France, but can they pull off the same feats in Russia?

As the spell of good weather continues in late October, we take advantage and push through the Russian lines with an armoured spearhead.

On this day, Murmansk is our last major city East of Riga.

A strategic reallocation of the southern armoured spearhead before a series of critical offensives to completely purge Romania of Russian blood (hopefully). Labelled Directive 34, Hitler has finally approved this series of offensive manoeuvres due to the remarkably good weather (seriously strange at this time of year).

So it begins, Directive 34 is placed into action on the 9th of November.

Some more offensive action across the front. We're taking advantage of provinces that cannot be flanked in order to launch the opening moves of these offensives.

Directive 34 in action.

Some more of that Directive 34.

Our valiant Wehrmacht pushing those Ruskies back!

The weather remains favourable - To Moscow!

In the meantime say goodbye to the last of the British forces on mainland Italy, we'll worry about Sicily later on.

Good bye! 118,000 troops gone.

The new year brought new hopes, but Sadly only a few days before the end of January, 1945, Mumansk has fallen. We'll take a moment of silence for the brave lads who staved off wave after wave of Russian aggression.

On the other side of the globe, Japan just turned Nationalist China into another client state, it's vast army will be put to good use driving back the British, who have just annexed Siam for good measure. Japan is fairing pretty well so far.

The end of Directive 34! Romania has been liberated!

Relative Victory! Nothing can taste better. Except for tea... and maybe some biscuits.

 

[DDA87]

Nice read, thx for sharing

 

[Enewald]

No chances of giving rump-Italy their southern provinces back? They don't have cores on them?
There was no way to retreat to Norway from Lapland?

 

[Guderian1992]

No chances of giving rump-Italy their southern provinces back? They don't have cores on them?
There was no way to retreat to Norway from Lapland?

No sir, I can't release them as a puppet unless I've conquered the United Kingdom. They do have cores on them but you can't hand them over yet unless you script the event yourself.

No again, The connecting province has no infrastructure, which in turn saves Finland from a USSR Invasion.

Nice read, thx for sharing

Thank you for reading! There'll be more updates today or tomorrow and definitely throughout the weekend! Be sure to catch those as they should be interesting.

 

[Guderian1992]

Important Notice!

I've encountered a save game loading crash and now I can't access my saved game anymore. It's frustrating but I only keep 1 save per AAR to save space.

Sorry for the inconvenience guys but this is out of my hands.

Maybe I'll start a new one soon.

Thank you all for your understanding.​

 

[sylwek 1000]

How long did it take you to reorganize the command structure?

 

[Guderian1992]

How long did it take you to reorganize the command structure?

Quite some time, I'd say about 65-70 minutes.

 

[Forster]

Sucks about losing the save game. This was interesting to follow.

 

[Guderian1992]

Sucks about losing the save game. This was interesting to follow.

I'll be starting a new Gotterdammerung AAR after the new year (Jan 3), the current file was too corrupt and it eventually stopped loading altogether.

Here is a list of some bugs and weird issues I faced:

1. Units disappearing from the map (sometimes never to return again) [Huge blow to MP deprived Germany]
2. Some provinces would be lost after being bombed by the Allies. [Pretty painful for the war effort when Dresden is lost randomly]
3. Battles would be at 19% victory chance, I save then reload, the same battle at the same moment will be at 67%.
4. Clicking any menu option besides save game will result in a crash.