Chapter 15: Unlimited National Emergency.
On the 26th of February, Germany does the USA a big favor, when it completes the conquest of Yugoslavia. There are actually 2 sides to this decision.
On the one hand, France must not be in control of Paris OR be a member of the Axis.
On the other hand, either UK must have 10% surrender progress OR Yugoslavia must be a government in exile. Don’t ask me why Yugoslavia is so important to the US. I didn’t make the rules. It's just a way of getting the US involved in a historically accurate timeframe.
Fact is that entering a state of Unlimited National Emergency, drops US Neutrality be another 5%, gives us a 10% National Manpower modifier and gives us a 10% IC bonus.
Of these 3, the drop in neutrality is certainly the most powerful one. All this time, I have been working toward maximizing the effects of this drop.
Why? Simply put, it gives us the best possible peacetime laws available to a democracy. Except for the Mixed Industry (and Germany is just about the only nation in the game that can use that law while at peace), we now have the same laws as Germany does after the Reoccupation Of The Rhineland.
Germany’s effective IC went to just above 200 with it.
When the US enacts War Eonomy, our IC total goes from 450 to 576 (that is with all modifiers, including temporary ones). And we’re not even at war yet. It is from this point onwards, that the USA is all but invincible. The in-game USA can do what the real US boasted about being able to do. You sink a carrier? We’ll build 2 to replace them. You have 20 panzer divisions ready to invade us? We’ll build 50 to rebuff you. You have 20 interceptors? I'll just build so many bombers that your fighters will be overworked.
There is a potential downside, however, if you can even call it that at this level. If Japan is not in the Axis, the USA would find themselves in a Limited War (meaning just us and them, plus their puppets). The game rules don’t allow you to go to Full Economic Mobilization upon entering a war is you have more than double the IC that your opponent has. Trust me when I say that we most certainly have over twice of Japan’s IC.
In other words, if the US wants to enter this final Economic law, we will need to be at war with Germany. The easiest way of doing that will be to provoke Japan into bombing Pearl Harbour. This should allow us to become a member of the Allies, and find ourselves at war with Germany as a consequence.
Another possibility would be to declare war on the Soviets after the start of Barbarossa, but that would be a bit far-fetched.
All this is academic for the moment. We don’t have the Neutrality to declare war on anyone just yet (still at 54.46), or even to embargo anyone. For that, we will need a final puzzle piece. And once again, Germany will be the one to provide that piece for us, a couple of months from now.
As you could tell from the last screenshot, my garrisons are almost finished training. I place 2 each on Guam, Wake, Midway, Honolulu, Johnston Island, Phoenix Island and Palmyra. These last 3 are potentially important if we want to keep a line open to Australia and New Zealand.
All of these will be attached directly to the Pacific Theater HQ. Sometimes, I use the AI for large, easy landgrabs during war. I always do this at the Army or Army Group level. This way, I am certain that the AI will not try to use these garrisons as tank divisions. Or so much as move them anywhere.
The last garrison is posted to Rejkja…Reykya… to Iceland.
It is extremely unlikely that anyone in the Axis would be in a position to threaten us there, but it’s there, and provides a potential jumping point between Scotland and Newfoundland.
To replace them in the queu, I opt to build some interceptors before starting more Multi-roles. The reason for this is simple. Interceptors are cheaper in IC and quicker to build. As such, they will gain us Light Aircraft Practicals faster than their more offensive-minded cousins.
For that same reason, I build 2 Naval Bombers. Not only will they come in handy, but they are slightly cheaper and quicker than Tactical Bombers.
The carriers will be finished in May next year. I’m hoping that our Pacific defenses will keep the Japanese in check until then. By that time, I should be ready for war.
But we are going to slowly get started on modernising our army, so I have placed a ton of IC into upgrades. There are a lot to do and we have a big load of research being done. I have also increased the allotment of IC being send to the UK, from 20 to 25.
The next step is to change the Leadership sliders. We have plenty of Diplomacy points and spies, and, now that we have 3-Year-Draft, it is finally worthwhile to spend points on training officers.
I put Sommervell in charge of the CONUS theater and Drum (with a substantial promotion to Field Marshall) in charge of the Pacific Theater. Both are level-1 nobodies with the only saving grace of being Logistics Wizards. This way, I keep my good generals for the important jobs.
These will undoubtedly change as soon as we enter a war, but the Theater HQ doesn’t usually need a lot of Organisation anyway (not being a frontline unit), so that can wait until later. Right now, I aim to save a couple of points of supply needs.
While we’re preparing for war, let’s build our very first real frontline division, shall we? And since we’re the USA, what better unit to start with than the US Marine Corps?
Some people, Secret Master included, like this set-up for their marines. They lose a lot of their unique terrain bonuses, but this is largely compensated for by their Armour stat. It is a valid strategy, since most garrisons in the Pacific will not have any real anti-tank weapons, they should fall quickly enough.
Others take it even one step further and replace the Armour brigade with Heavy Armour, but I don’t like it. It simply takes away too much from the unique nature of a marine division.
All major nations in TFH have a specific national type of brigade. The UK has the Ghurkas, the fearsome mountain warriors of Asia. Italy also has special mountain troops, the Alpinis., while France has the Chasseurs Alpins (which I still feel should be Foreign Legion instead, but that’s just me).
Japan has the Imperial Guards, infantry that can be paradropped.
Germany has the Waffen-SS and the Soviets have the Guards. Both of these are motorised units specialising in urban warfare.
The US has the Rangers, in real life quite possibly one of the best recon units in the world. They are not too bad in the game either.
This is as close to what the real marines had during WWII as the game will get (I believe), although they had only a tank battalion (I think) instead of a regiment, and they had more heavy weapons and garrison units attached as well. They are excellent defensive units for jungle fighting.
Me, I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy. They are less than optimal, if you’re looking to min-max, because of their Combat Width. On the other hand, their terrain bonuses are not diluted in the slightest, while their combat stats pretty much ensure that I don’t need more than 3 of them in any amphibious assault. Their toughness of 42 means that, most of the time, their opponents will be out of Org before they are, when on the attack.
Yes, I did say 3.
The game rules state that you can add up to a Combat Width of 10, PLUS ONE ADDITIONAL UNIT.
In this case, a third marine division, for a total CW of 15.
All I have to do is to keep them away from anything even closely resembling armour.
I only build 1 division at the moment, just to get things started.
This is where the composition of the newly build garrisons comes in handy. We now have an Infantry Practical of 10.6 and an Armour Practical of 8. Artillery Practicals are still in the dumps (2), but we are building 24 artillery brigades, remember? These will ensure that we have good Land Practicals overall by the time we start preparing for war in Europe.
Navigation radar is essential for any nation with naval ambitions, as it will make it easier for bombers to find enemy ships. Strategic Bombers don't have a lot of actual combat use, but their awesome range can sometimes make them useful in sinking enemy ships where you don't have a nearby airbase to work from.
Speaking of ships, let’s take a look at page 6 of the ledger, which lists all the ships sunk during the game.
After adding them up, I come to the conclusion that Germany, so far, has lost 9 subs, 6 transports, 5 DD, 5 CL, 2 CA and 1 of their WWI-vintage BCs. This means that Bismarck is probably out there somewhere, along with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but they have lost the Battle Of the Atlantic.
Italy has lost 3 subs, 6 CA, 5 CL, 1 BB (Littorio), and 11 transports. This is pretty much normal for them, as they don’t really stand a chance against the British navy.
Japan has only lost a single DD during the Sino-Japanese War.
Contrary to their enemies, UK, so far, has only lost 1 DD and 4 CA. I’d call that a win, and it shows that the Royal Navy still has very sharp claws in its old age.
In other words, we will probably need some naval strength in the Atlantic before we start shipping troops to England. That can wait, though. If I can take care of Japan first, I can build up my land forces and use the Pacific Fleet for protecting the invasion of Europe.
By mid-april, I start building the last 5 destroyers I need to bring that fleet up to strength. The first 5 are scheduled for launch in early July. With some luck, this will shave off a substantial amount of time from the last ones.
By late April, I can start researching 1942 techs. Still ahead of the time curve.
We are losing 19 Rare Materials per day, through no other fault than my massive factory builds. To compensate, I will add a single level of 1938 Rare Material Prcessing Techniques. Not that it’s really necessary. Once I go to full wartime laws, the added percentage of Resource gathering should be more than enough.
One of the bonuses provided by Germany’s agression runs out on the 24th of June, and our IC drops back down from 576 to “only” 540, still more than Germany has after all their conquests.
When we come back, we are going to continue with the preparations for war. See you then!
