Numbers?

[unmerged(56610)]

is that all that matters in this game? fucking french dow me when i attacked poland as germany in 1939(danzig or war). i had about 20 infantery divisions at the french border and about 10 austrian divisions. more than enough, i thought. then the french just punches through with 50-60 divisions. wtf!? now they're storming into germany and there is no stopping them. they just have far, far too many divisions. at the start of the was, i have about 20 divisions at the french border and about 25 divisions at the polish border(including 6 panzer div).

have i seriously underestimated my need for units early in the game? i thought my superior morale, org and infantery quality would be enough. and i had never thought the french would dow me. stupid game...

 

[Hagar]

is that all that matters in this game? fucking french dow me when i attacked poland as germany in 1939(danzig or war). i had about 20 infantery divisions at the french border and about 10 austrian divisions. more than enough, i thought. then the french just punches through with 50-60 divisions. wtf!? now they're storming into germany and there is no stopping them. they just have far, far too many divisions. at the start of the was, i have about 20 divisions at the french border and about 25 divisions at the polish border(including 6 panzer div).

have i seriously underestimated my need for units early in the game? i thought my superior morale, org and infantery quality would be enough. and i had never thought the french would dow me. stupid game...

Nope, it's not just about numbers, morale, org and quality matters A LOT. But it's the first time I heard of the French being too powerful in-game. You do have to build up forces in order to defend the border, but normally it shouldn't be a problem.
Have you moved sizable forces towards the border early in the game, by any chance? That might have triggered early rearmament and mobilization. At any rate you don't have to move sizable forces into the Rhineland to trigger its occupation.

 

[Fielding]

is that all that matters in this game? fucking french dow me when i attacked poland as germany in 1939(danzig or war). i had about 20 infantery divisions at the french border and about 10 austrian divisions. more than enough, i thought. then the french just punches through with 50-60 divisions. wtf!? now they're storming into germany and there is no stopping them. they just have far, far too many divisions. at the start of the was, i have about 20 divisions at the french border and about 25 divisions at the polish border(including 6 panzer div).

have i seriously underestimated my need for units early in the game? i thought my superior morale, org and infantery quality would be enough. and i had never thought the french would dow me. stupid game...

I usually shoot for having +/- 90 divs by Sept. 1939, which I think is more or less historically accurate. Playing CORE, I typically build a lot of GAR with ART attached as defensive units in the west (they give you the best defensive value per IC and manpower), along with most of my starting infantry, which again is fairly historical, as approximately half of Germany's divisions in 1939 weren't really front line ready. I usually find that if I have fewer than 12 divisions in each of the three French border provinces, thw French will often attack, almost always at Freiburg. I try to have 15-18 divs there. This is on the normal setting for AI aggressiveness.

 

[Hagar]

I usually shoot for having +/- 90 divs by Sept. 1939, which I think is more or less historically accurate. Playing CORE, I typically build a lot of GAR with ART attached as defensive units in the west (they give you the best defensive value per IC and manpower), along with most of my starting infantry, which again is fairly historical, as approximately half of Germany's divisions in 1939 weren't really front line ready. I usually find that if I have fewer than 12 divisions in each of the three French border provinces, thw French will often attack, almost always at Freiburg. I try to have 15-18 divs there. This is on the normal setting for AI aggressiveness.

I'm pretty sure stacking such a force that early within the border region will trigger mobilization for France. Now that gives them a major production boost. Without it France is hard pressed to support its existing units. And garrison units are no match for regular divisions, plus there's the stacking penalty to consider. I tend to defend the border with just 5-6 regular divisions without problem once the bullets start flying.

 

[unmerged(56610)]

Nope, it's not just about numbers, morale, org and quality matters A LOT. But it's the first time I heard of the French being too powerful in-game. You do have to build up forces in order to defend the border, but normally it shouldn't be a problem.
Have you moved sizable forces towards the border early in the game, by any chance? That might have triggered early rearmament and mobilization. At any rate you don't have to move sizable forces into the Rhineland to trigger its occupation.

hm, i did move all my divs in the western parts of germany to the 'rhineland' areas early in the game. about 12-14 divs. maybe this triggered france to mobilize.

anyways, i had to abandon my game. was no way of defending the country. the allies poured into germany. more than 60 divs of french units and supported by plenty of other allied forces.

in general though, how much do you guys mobilize from 1936-1938 being germany? usually, i just use all my resources trading supplies and energy for oil and rare materials and research. then i start building up in sometime in 1938. have always been enough to beat poland and then eventually reinforce the west borders.

 

[HFL]

hm, i did move all my divs in the western parts of germany to the 'rhineland' areas early in the game. about 12-14 divs. maybe this triggered france to mobilize.

anyways, i had to abandon my game. was no way of defending the country. the allies poured into germany. more than 60 divs of french units and supported by plenty of other allied forces.

in general though, how much do you guys mobilize from 1936-1938 being germany? usually, i just use all my resources trading supplies and energy for oil and rare materials and research. then i start building up in sometime in 1938. have always been enough to beat poland and then eventually reinforce the west borders.

I'm pretty sure stacking such a force that early within the border region will trigger mobilization for France. Now that gives them a major production boost. Without it France is hard pressed to support its existing units. And garrison units are no match for regular divisions, plus there's the stacking penalty to consider. I tend to defend the border with just 5-6 regular divisions without problem once the bullets start flying.

Playing Germany 2-3 divisions in each french border province are enough till spring 1939. Afterwards new infantry divisions in connection with decent old guard generals (defensive) and not needed brigades (AA, AT, Art) are enough to hold the line. Normally after Danzig there are 5+ divisions in each border province. They must be digged in (20).
An air shield of 4 interceptors for your bordertroops is recommended.

Its war - watch the french troops deployments. You definitely need more units. With a two front war you need atleast 75 divisions or poland will need too much time. Your description sounded like you tried to build only tanks. 100+ (1939) infs are useful in 1939/1940 for the bulk of your army. Later this troops are useful for garrison and Russia.

You can trade without much additional (or without) supplies. Industry (till 1938) Army (many infs) and Airforce are worthy of your IC.

With more divisions Denmark and the Netherlands are possible in september 1939.

 

[Antiochus V]

is that all that matters in this game? fucking french dow me when i attacked poland as germany in 1939(danzig or war). i had about 20 infantery divisions at the french border and about 10 austrian divisions. more than enough, i thought. then the french just punches through with 50-60 divisions. wtf!? now they're storming into germany and there is no stopping them. they just have far, far too many divisions. at the start of the was, i have about 20 divisions at the french border and about 25 divisions at the polish border(including 6 panzer div).

have i seriously underestimated my need for units early in the game? i thought my superior morale, org and infantery quality would be enough. and i had never thought the french would dow me. stupid game...

The Allied army in 1939-May 1940 was roughly on a par in with Germany in terms of numbers.
France chose to sit tight historically, operating on the principle that it should react to events and avoid unecessary losses. However the German forces opposing them during the invasion of Poland would have had a tough time holding off a determined French invasion. The failure of France to act when it had the chance cost them dearly.
Therefore you faced an ahistoric but entirely plausible dilema. Operating on two fronts is risky as it should be.

 

[Fielding]

I'm pretty sure stacking such a force that early within the border region will trigger mobilization for France. Now that gives them a major production boost. Without it France is hard pressed to support its existing units. And garrison units are no match for regular divisions, plus there's the stacking penalty to consider. I tend to defend the border with just 5-6 regular divisions without problem once the bullets start flying.

I make a point of not moving them into place until August of 39 - until then I typically have only 3 divs in each of Saarbrucken, Stuttgart and Freiburg.
I agree with you about garrisons not being an equal match for infantry, but in a static defense role I think they're OK (unless you lose in combat . . .). My thinking is that in a purely defensive role, the only stat that really counts in defensiveness, and GAR+ART will have the same value as INF, for a lesser cost in IC and MP. Plus I know I'll be able to use them later on as actual garrison troops for anti-partisan duty, and don't have to worry too much about upgrading them.
I'm surprised that you manage with only 5-6 divisions along the French border (is that per province or total?) - every game I've played (both CORE and vanilla DD) where I have 9 or fewer divisions in Freiburg, the French invariably attack. Maybe I stationed my divisions along the border too early, as you said.

 

[Andri]

Normally when i down Poland i have about 36 infantry divisions at the France border and 12 over whole the Poland border + 12 Panzer divisions