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Launch the submarines! (mid to late game)

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OsirisReborn

OsirisReborn

Lt. General
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Oct 22, 2005
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  • Hearts of Iron II: Armageddon
  • Darkest Hour
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Europa Universalis: Rome
  • Rome: Vae Victis
hey folks,
I'm playing as Germany, world conquest, Armageddon.
Its mid 1942 and I'm behind schedule. Still fighting in central asia and India, Just now closing Suez, and I have lost Sicily and Crete. The AI is putting up one hell of a fight everywhereMy navy didnt get built yet and im running out of manpower. I have lots of subs and the most wonderful bases! My 11 groups of 4 subs can raid all around Africa and India and i can now enter the Med at will. I slipped fleet with 2 CV into the horn of Africa area to help out. Problem is the allies have tons of DD and the subs are getting beat up bad.
The USA is in the fight and i don't really think the millions of tons of sunk convoys really made a dent anyway (England still had high IC and fielded an impressive army in the middle east throughout)

Do I give up the convoy war except for surface raiders and NAV?
Pursue advanced sub ops and switch to night raids maybe?
If i keep at it should i keep the fleets small to avoid detection?
 
Perhaps continue sub warfare, but subs become much less efficient after 43. Just dont build more.
 
I have a 99 x 3 run going (subIV) and thats pretty much replacing losses.
If i stop production I wont be able to keep the subs full strength (Is that the idea ? to let them whittle away to zero?) or start any new fleets at far flung captured ports.
Night or day missions? Does it even matter?
 
1) Subs will be obsolete very soon. Better use some naval bombers, or tactical ones if you dont have nav.
2) Don't matter.
 
Really, I've found the whole convoy raiding thing to be generally not worth the time or the effort most of the time. I know Blue Emu got it to work, but then, he's Blue Emu. I like subs early war for killing the multitude of small DD / CL fleets roaming around that the UK and US always have. Beyond that, expect to take heavy losses, though I've found 12 sub fleets pretty effective pre-43. Several UK and US BBs and CVs are at the bottom thanks to my sub crews.
 
The other effect convoy raiding does though is that the AI will build replacement convoys so in effect you are eating up its IC. Convoy raiding generally isn't worth it IMHO but subs are very cheap and if you uild X3 lvl III ones in 36 or rush lvlIV ones by 38 and stat building them gearing bonuses and later ship production line tech will churn them out for vry little IC/manpower.

Don't be afraid to retreat, don't launch winter offensives and buid some CAS. Concentrate on the eastern front and don't worry to much about India/middle east. Take control of the other Axis members and use their forces to guard the beaches in France and send Germans to the USSR. Build airfields if you have to. CAS are great in the Ukraine area, if you're near Sverdlosk or east of Stalingrad tac bombers may be better. Rather than focus on taking territory focus on destroying the red army. Heavy cruisers are good at taking out all those small annoying allied fleets, and carriers aren't very good for Germany.
 
One thing I noticed is even with escort brigades the TAC take alot more dmg than CAS from continuous air ops, dunno why. There's no way bitter peace can fire in this game so i have left just enough in russia to slowly push them back , there are many stacks of 15+ hiding in the northern marshes and those are a nightmare to take much less hold. The fighting in the urals requires me to retreat quite often, its give and take, sometimes i can encircle the russian spearhead or Infantry but less and less now. The bear can still throw avalanches at me and are harder to beat over there since they still have so many units especially and the bad terrain combines with my horrible TC/ESE. India is a stalemate and im trying to drive a wedge between the british and the americans who seem to be staying in the south around Karachi. using MTN units to great effect in northern India. The med is my main focus now as the British defending Turkey collapsed and the tanks have also over ran the middle east and pushed over the Sues canal heading west(knocking on Tobruk now). Might have a chance to wrap up this theater so i have my navy sailing around africa to reinforce the 1 cruiser fleet i built in athens/podorica.
(So i can land my now free Turkish army group in spain and seal the deal)
About german carriers, whether they're ideal or not I'm glad i built 5 of them as they're really all i have when outnumbered. They can still do hvy dmg and even get away where if i get a cruiser only force caught its probably going to get badly mauled. Maybe when i have parity or superiority the surface groups can shine.
Im glad you pointed out the convoy war ties up his IC , i was fixated on the UK IC total. I guess a drop in IC rarely happens and I'm glad to know my efforts werent wasted. I still have a pretty large sub force but they are not really doing much now less success per month than before. (but more convoys killed when they do succeed) I wonder if sea wolves get any bonus at all when commanding surface fleets ?
 
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ISea wolves don't but stacks of subs under sea wolves rear admirals level up fast. Only use bombers on retreating stacks of AI units or small stacks (1-3 divisions) of moving AI units. as they take damage bombing entrenched ones. Also cycle out damaged ones. Don't fight in the winter to much. Fall back to Persia and use some tac bombers to bomb the infrastructure behind you as it can take months for the AI to advance through Persia that way. Just defend the mountains in NW Persia around Tabriz. Contrate on knocking out the Soviets. Suitably large Axis stacks in the mountains can hold off large amounts of the Allies and it gives the Bulgarians/Hungarians/Romanians something to do apart from getting mauled on the eastern front. 4 tac bombers and 4 CAS should be able to wipe out all of the Allied stuff in INdia. Fall back and let the alles recapture territories and counterattck as soon as the first units arrive and bomb them once they retreat. Bombay and Karachi are good for this along with the deserts in Persia.

Similar deal in the USSR. Let them advance out of the marhes, attack them and bomb them. Once they fall back into the marshes and attack again don't let them recover organisation. Let the Luftwaffe do most of the work. I've done this as Romania several times both in a 41 offensive and in 42 when the USSR DoW's Germany and you don't need a massive airforce to do it.
 
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Im doing most of this already. Occasionally i have to ground a luftflotte or two when they accidentaly attack a big stack i ground anything under 60 % or i lose too many exp stars. I simply love the Armageddon exp both von pohl and richtofen are lvl 9!
I dont want to fall back in India as ive already taken Karachi. I'm holding the ganghes river(?) line right now. Im having lots of fun with my reinforced navy in the Med, amph asslting every where and Benghasi just fell. Also having to divert some transports to be able to advance in saudi arabi. I have it annexed but the UK puppets can attack faster than i can, probably my TC, so im landing there as well. I retook crete and i'm mopping up the greek islands, actually had to laugh at the 57 divisions guarding sicily ...what the hell! they must be eating the grass and roots off the island. I have sperle getting creative with the logistic strikes there in prep (i have to take malta for him to attack sicily properly).
No way i can take out soviets this year trying to stop at the big river that's right next to tannu tuva... seriously have to get my dissent down (it's 10 % now) and reinforce/upgrade. I might have to suspend ops in 43' to divert IC but well see what i can do this winter.
i should have 500 IC but the dissent is killing me.
As for the subs i collected all of my best stacks out of athens and alexandria and theyre sinking everything in the tyranian sea hehe. The black gap and western atlantic are juicy targets but i lose a sub or two every time i try there so i backed off a little. I'm trying african and Ceylon targets instead ... some success but not much. My NAV aircraft are hitting the red sea and the horn but they only get 1 or 2 convoys per hit.
 
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