Playing as Germany

[unmerged(60447)]

I gather that CORE has changed certain things like the technology-chart so I'm posting here, as I'm playing Core 0.25 for Doomsday(patched to 1.2) Anyway, I'm currently playing as Turkey(part of the Axis alliance) and have conquered most of what is now Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait. The next game, I want to play as Germany, but have no idea what numbers of troops I should build up by 1939. Could anyone give me some idea as to roughly how many tanks/infantry etc. etc. are needed by Germany by September 1939? Also, I was thinking of using the 5th technology-team slot for Werner Von Braun so as to research rockets. I'm aware that researching things earlier on that historically appeared later, such as rocket or atomic bomb technology, makes the research completion of each slot much slower, but is it still feasible to research rocket technology if I start as early as 1936 with a permanent slot devoted specifically to rockets?

 

[Hagar]

I gather that CORE has changed certain things like the technology-chart so I'm posting here, as I'm playing Core 0.25 for Doomsday(patched to 1.2) Anyway, I'm currently playing as Turkey(part of the Axis alliance) and have conquered most of what is now Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait. The next game, I want to play as Germany, but have no idea what numbers of troops I should build up by 1939. Could anyone give me some idea as to roughly how many tanks/infantry etc. etc. are needed by Germany by September 1939? Also, I was thinking of using the 5th technology-team slot for Werner Von Braun so as to research rockets. I'm aware that researching things earlier on that historically appeared later, such as rocket or atomic bomb technology, makes the research completion of each slot much slower, but is it still feasible to research rocket technology if I start as early as 1936 with a permanent slot devoted specifically to rockets?

Devoting one tech slot permanently for one type of early ahistoric research will hurt, and a lot too I guess. It is feasible, though at a very high price. As you can't research it all on the historic date anyway why not opt for a more historic approach, optionally choosing for early research (max 1 year or so) if the benefit outweighs the price, like we all do?
As to the number and types of units you need for Germany, that really depends on your strategy. There isn't one 'best option', the more so as it depends on your areas of research you're focusing.

 

[unmerged(62347)]

Well, I'd thought that I should have 1 slot of research teams each for industrial, army(infantry and tank/artillery), air-force and naval research fields, and then one for rockets and/or atomic energy. But I think, judging from what you've told me, that I'll have the 5th slot at first focusing on development of infantry and tanks, in addition to the first slot, before going on eventually to rocket research in 1942(1943 was the year the rockets were first used, correct?)

One other question. The info in the grey booklet states that it's best to choose a research-team which has the relevant expertise noted in the specific research being undertaken, even if the research team has a lower numerical strength and overall weakness, than another more expensive research-team with a higher number. What I was wondering was that if a research-team, say, had a value of 9(or 7?), wouldn't it carry out a piece of research research quite a bit faster than a research-unit with a value of 5, even if the latter research-team had the relevant expertise in , two,three or more of the fields listed?

 

[theRedCimmerian]

There is an excellent FAQ for Research in the HOI. I don't think the basic rules have changed. If they have, then everything said below is a lot of baloney.
So, for example, if we have a tech with all 5 parts are level 6 and we have a team of level 4 that matches on 3 of them, the basic time for level 6 is 44 days. Since the level 4 team is 2 less than 6, we add 7 (3+4) days to each of those, so we're up to 51. The 3 that are matched are halved to 26. (I think they round up)

So the total time is 26*3 +51*2 = 180 days for the level 4 team.

If we have a level 9 team that matches on 1 category, since the team is 3 higher than the tech level we subtract 8 (-3-3-2) from the basic time of 44 which gives us 36. we get to divide the one matching category by 2, so for the level 9 team we get: 18 + 36*4 = 162.

So the level 9 team with 1 match beats the level 4 team with 3 matches.
This is a pretty extreme comparison. I think Goering is the only level 4 team that the Germans have, and I don't see any 5's either (but it's still 1936 in my first go as Germany)

However, the FAQ does not tell how long a tech 20 takes. Level 10 is not twice as long as level 5.

Also the further ahead a tech is researched, the less the difference between a good tech team and a bad one. Depending on how rounding is handled.
For example, two teams, one level 5 the other a level 8 working on a tech level 5, the level 5 team will do it in 42 days, which comes out to 2.38 per day (for that piece) or .47 as it is displayed in the game (as a percent of the whole job). The max delay for early tech is 90%, so this team drops to .047 per day.
The level 8 team does the same piece in 34 days (42-3-3-2) which comes out to 3.12 per day (for that piece) or .625 as it is displayed. with the max delay for early, we get .0625. So depending on how the rounding is handled the range could be anywhere from .04 - .06 (if always rounded down) or .05 to .06 (if rounded more normally) - the upshot here is that depending on the rounding, it may be more useful to use a lower level team, if the technology is expected to be fully researched 2 years or more in advance. Unless you have loads of high power teams - ie. Germany.

The only problem I see with technology is that it seems that for most major powers, before the war, almost everything must be researched early, while about 1942 is almost everything is researched late.

 

[theRedCimmerian]

Thats not really a problem...

 

[unmerged(62347)]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep it in mind. One other question. I checked some other HOI2 forum, a while back, and I think it was mentioned that mass seabrone invasions such as D-Day or Operation SeaLion are almost never carried out by the AI. Has C.O.R.E made this possible? I would certainly expect this to occur, as otherwise my next game as Germany is likely to be too much of a walkover.