Chapter 11: Radar, A Secret Weapon?
We pick up our story in October. The USA has begun researching radar. A lot of people don’t know or understand how radar works in this game, and that is not surprising. “Radar Efficiency”, what is that?
The main purpose of radar is to detect enemy planes and guide fighters to intercept them. It gives a combat bonus for this particular mission. Even more, it makes the “Air Intercept” mission a viable option. Without it, your fighters would scramble too late and are unable to prevent large-scale damage to the target province or units. The only possible choice in this case, is the “Air Superiority” mission. This will give your fighters a number of provinces to patrol, depending on the parameters you set at the start of the mission. These planes will be in the air nonstop, continually using fuel and supplies.
With radar, your fighters will stay on the ground, until enemy planes are detected by the radar, and will then take off to intercept the enemy (you still have to set the “intercept” mission, obviously). This early warning system will give them more time to arrive in the target province, hopefully preventing the enemy from inflicting severe damage. Radar also gives a combat bonus to all planes in its radius, when they are on an intercept mission.
This radius increases as the level of radar increases. You can easily see this by the light on the map, given off by the radar.
Using the Battle Of Britain as an example, the UK’s radar installations along its soutern coastline, allowed the RAF to watch airfields in France, detecting German planes taking off. They could tell whether these planes were bombers or fighters. This allowed them to intercept German squadrons the moment they entered Britain itself (RAF didn’t allow their fighters to intercept over the Channel to reduce the number of lost planes and pilots). It allowed RAF Fighter Command to coordinate the efforts of the 3 Fighter Groups stationed in southern and eastern England for maximum coverage.
But there is more! Beyond saving supplies, fuel, IC and MP this way, radar installations can serve as listening stations (remember the tech I told you does this?). All HQs have a radio range, that allows them to benefit from a well-organised OOB. Radar intercepts these radio signals, showing you the approximate location of enemy ground forces, along with their estimated unit type, and, sometimes, their name. This estimates become more accurate as you research the decryption tech. The effect this has on your intel, cannot be overestimated. A German level-10 radar installation, with proper techs to support it, will often pick up Soviet HQs and divisions as far east as Moscow. A level-10 radar in Dover can see an Army Group HQ sitting in Konigsberg in East Prussia. Not every unit is shown, of course, and their location is not always accurate, but it helps tremendously in clearing up the Fog Of War and planning your next moves.
And that’s not all. Large radars will also pick up and try to identify ships passing through sea zones in its vicinity. Again, using UK as an example, radar installations in southeast and southwest England, will often show you the location of German subs, greatly enhancing the ability of destroyers to locate and destroy them.
Finally, the Radar tech opens up several other, related techs for your planes and ships, giving them better detection stats when researched.
So is it any wonder I research it as soon as possible?
At the end of the month, some IC frees up. I use this to build 3 more factories.
Mobile Warfare doctrine advances to the next level, opening up the Spearhead doctrine, which we will research sometime next year. Instead, I begin researching Jungle Warfare Equipment, a vital link in making our marines and rangers the fearsome jungle warriors they are destined to become.
By late november, the last of our Arm techs is finished, allowing me to start research of Heavy Armour. I will research the Brigade tech now, but the actual techs (guns, armour, engine, reliability) will have to wait for later. The reason for this is simple. I plan on a Japan-first strategy. Once Japan is taken out of the equation, only Germany and Italy will be left and their navies, by that time, usually consist of a couple of rowing boats and river barges. I will no longer need to research naval techs, and can tech rush Harm techs. If all works according to plan, they can make an appearance in Europe by 1944.
On the 1st of December, we finish building a number of factories. More are put into the queu, but this time, I want USS Yorktown and its CAGs to get done. These will definitely be the last factories I build.
I check my Neutrality at the start of 1939. It stands at 82.94. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there. All we need now is for Germany to fire its decisions, and then we are golden.
That is the paradox of playing as the USA: you want/need Germany to be very successful early on, because it will allow you to put better laws into place.
By this time, I am researching most of the various bomber techs, which I plan on fully researching.
By february, we have 204 IC. Together with the huge amount of resources we are trading away, we are currently at a deficit of about -7 Energy. That’s no problem, since we have maxed out our Energy and Metal pools a long time ago and can stay at a deficit for many years to come if we have to. It does, however, serve as a warning to other nations trying to IC-whore. Make sure you have enough of a surpluss, unless you want to run your own economy into the ground by overbuilding factories.
We finish research of Self-Propelled Artillery in February. All the techs we need in the Armour tab are now up-to-date.
USS Yorktown is launched on the 11th of March.
This will take its place. We will lose a lot of convoys early in the war, so by building a large enough surpluss, I can shield myself from the losses preventively. Each convoy consists of 10 ships. Submarines sink individual ships. So if I build 99 convoys, I am actually building 990 ships.
A couple of days later, Fighter Ground Control (the tech that improves the combat effect of your radar on your planes) is done. I can now start researching the last Fighter tech.
26 March 1939. Germany fires the First Vienna Award decision, annexing the Czechs and turning the Slovaks into their puppets. And here, I have a confession of sorts. Originally, when I got to this point, Czechoslovakia refused to play ball, leading them to war against Germany. As this would snowball into an unpredictable war, where the UK DoWed Germany (leading to war against Germany and Japan in march 1939), I talked it over with my co-authors Secret Master and 21Oliver. It was decided that I should reload the last auto-save, because this is a tutorial AAR. A tutorial depends on controlled circumstances whenever possible for people who are following along. I just told you this in the interest of full disclosure.
If this were just any gameplay AAR, I would have gone with the flow of the game, but not this time.
Anyway, moving on.
The effect of the Czech annexation on US Neutrality is minute, but in Europe the effects are obvious. Poland mobilizes on the 28th of March, France following suit on the 30th. Italy joins the Axis, probably in response to the sudden threat on its border, on that same day. On the 4th of April, South Africa joins the Allies. Hungary joins the Axis on the 9th of May.
In Washington, life goes on as usual. Tac Pilot Training makes way for Mechanised Offensive. By late May, I am researching all the Naval Doctrines I need.
I stop a bunch of trades with the Axis, both current and future, both for RP reasons (despite the protests of mister Ford, FDR has decided he no longer likes this Hitler fellow) and to stem the loss of Energy and Rares. Energy goes from -24 to -7, while Rares go from -7.6 to +4). I would have embargoed them, but my Neutrality is not low enough…yet.
Since it’s an election year, I also put the support of the ruling party at home on priority-3 again.
In early June, we are once again building up our surplusses. Most factories will finish in August, making room for some much-needed production in other areas. We will have about 2 years worth to build up the military, which should be enough to get started, at least.
A quick note on nukes might be in order before I end this chapter. I am not planning on researching them, because I don’t want to drag this mini-campaign out all the way, but in your own games, if you want nukes, here’s how you do it.
First you research all the way down to Isotope Separation, which will allow you to build a Nuclear Reactor (this baby costs around 75 IC or so, I believe).
You research 4 levels of Civl Nuclear Research.
Then you research Nuclear Bombs.
You build these and attach them either to strategic bombers or rockets, if you have those, and use them as a massive Strategic Attack.
That is all it does. It does not damage any planes, ships or ground units, but it will have a huge impact on their National Unity, if you use them on high-VP provinces. You will still need to take enough VPs in the traditional fashion, if you want them to surrender, but it will reduce the number of VPs you need.
As you can imagine, if you want 2 Atom Bombs ready by 1945, you will need to tech rush the hell out of them from day one. In another thread, Secret Master once informed me that he could not do it in time, while also building the historical OOB of the USA at the same time. I think it’s safe to say that, if he can’t do it, it can’t be done without tech rushing.
KyrionMyrthar had the following to say about nukes:
I've become a big fan of nukes. I've had them in mid-'44 as the USA, and early '45 as the UK. The trick is to keep researching Nuclear Theory at the top of your queue (or whatever its name is) so you lose less and less through practical degradation.
For those who haven't used nukes, the following occurs: All infrastructure and facilities are knocked down to 0. ALL resources are wiped out if you drop it on a capitol (Berlin, Tokyo, Rome). The first nuke dropped usually gives about a 20 point deduction in their national unity. Each subsequent nuke on the country is cut roughly in half each time for the NU hit, so 10, 5, etc.
If Germany is already on the precipice with no manpower, losing all of their resources is the death knell.
The first facility built is the hardest. As the USA, I usually start piling them into the queue when the first one is about one third of the way done. I'm sure I could be more efficient, but I always build them in the same province - I haven't checked to see if they can be spread across ten different provinces.
if you're rushing the builds, be sure to build them in level 10 infra.
In one recent game, I nuked Tokyo in August of '44.
That’s all for now. See you next time.
I usually run a squadron of 2xBB/4xBB with every carrier task force. Makes mincemeat of Japanese invasion fleets, even if they come in with four carriers.
