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Rocoulm

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Oct 4, 2010
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Hi! I'm relatively new to this game and am playing as Germany. It's now July 1940 and I have conquered Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and was wondering: should I try to go for sealion (invasion of the UK) soon or build up my forces to attack the USSR? Or maybe Africa? Any help appreciated.
 
Summer 1940, you should be building up for Barbarossa. Leave enough strength in the west to hold the beaches and get everyone to Poland for a start date of May 41. Sea Lion requires a little more planning and building, and I'm guessing you don't have the right items or enough of the right items (paras, marines, transports, some kind of fleet) to pull off a good sea lion. Also, the SU will get more dangerous the longer you leave them. Don't attack now, you need max campaign time before winter, but if you hold off past 41, bad things can happen. Better to have the UK to your back than the SU.

Sea Lion doesn't take that long, but you HAVE to be prepared for it, otherwise you'll be rushed and chance getting caught out of position by the SU. If you don't want to wait a whole year, take the rest of 40 to take Spain, Denmark, and maybe Sweden. These will give you control over strategic straits and complicate the UK's life. After barbarossa starts, you shouldn't need to build too many new units, so you can plow your entire IC into a good fleet, which will then help a Sea Lion after bitter peace.

Don't get sucked into fighting in N. Africa until after you've dealt with the SU either. Basically, the SU is your focus, kill them, then you can take anyone else out that you would like.
 
When you do prepare for Sea Lion make sure to build around 3 paratrooper divisions and the transport planes. They may seem incredibly expensive but they make the invasion much easier. You can even not build a fleet and sneak in transports and using your air power to hit the RN if it comes into range.
 
When you do prepare for Sea Lion make sure to build around 3 paratrooper divisions and the transport planes. They may seem incredibly expensive but they make the invasion much easier. You can even not build a fleet and sneak in transports and using your air power to hit the RN if it comes into range.
Or do what i did: Send TPs and useless ships on the RN's path to distract them while you unload your hordes on UK.
(Did Sealion with the soviets that way)
 
I would go for sealion but only if well prepared. Because afterwards you don't have to care so much about France, N. Africa or STR bombing. If it will take a lot of time to buildup your forces, go for Barbarossa. But always keep 2-3 groups of INT in France and Germany. And some troops.
 
I would go for sealion but only if well prepared. Because afterwards you don't have to care so much about France, N. Africa or STR bombing. If it will take a lot of time to buildup your forces, go for Barbarossa. But always keep 2-3 groups of INT in France and Germany. And some troops.
The IC from UK would help in Barbarossa if he do it quick.
 
The IC from UK would help in Barbarossa if he do it quick.

Certainly, but you have to prepare for Sea Lion at least somewhat, and if you don't have the right resources, it's not going to be done quick. TPs alone take a couple months to build Since the OP is in the middle of summer 40, that means that he would have to wait until fall 40 to make it happen, then he would also need to commit a lot of IC that could be used in the B-bossa build up to create things like TPs, escorts, etc, that will not be very useful in the SU.
 
Certainly, but you have to prepare for Sea Lion at least somewhat, and if you don't have the right resources, it's not going to be done quick. TPs alone take a couple months to build Since the OP is in the middle of summer 40, that means that he would have to wait until fall 40 to make it happen, then he would also need to commit a lot of IC that could be used in the B-bossa build up to create things like TPs, escorts, etc, that will not be very useful in the SU.
Sure, but only the RN is a problem in vannilla. Uk is mostly undefended by the AI, quick and easy.
 
Sure, but only the RN is a problem in vannilla. Uk is mostly undefended by the AI, quick and easy.

Well, yes,but getting past the RN can be a pain too. Not saying it can't be done by an experienced player, but for a new guy, a high risk op like that offers very return for the reward, especially when it's not THAT hard to guard your back against the brits.
 
I have just over 100 land divisions, including 15 med. armored, but no paras or marines yet. My navy consists of 4 battleships (level 4) ~22 subs and maybe 20 smaller ships with more subs on the way. In my airforce I have 15 wings TAC, 9 wings INT, 6 wings NAV and 8 wings CAS.
 
I have just over 100 land divisions, including 15 med. armored, but no paras or marines yet. My navy consists of 4 battleships (level 4) ~22 subs and maybe 20 smaller ships with more subs on the way. In my airforce I have 15 wings TAC, 9 wings INT, 6 wings NAV and 8 wings CAS.

Your armored force is ok, I'd get 3 more, but that's personal preference. YOu'll also need a similar or slightly larger number of Motorized and Mechanized Infantry as well. You'll also need more straight infantry for Barbarossa for the slugging matches on the frontier - they punch the hole, the mobile units exploit.

YOur AF is pretty decent, though you might want some more TAC for Barbarossa.

Your navy seems a little off kilter - what is your long term strategy for this arm? In any case, stop building subs, you have enough for now, and you need the IC elsewhere. Also, how many transports do you have? Those are the coin of the realm in getting troops across the channel. Also, you will need convoys too, in order to supply your army, have you built any of those? Germany starts with a very anemic number, and the AI is fairly decent at convoy killing. That said, you don't need to go overboard, but you will need more than what you have.

If you want to do a Sea Lion with what you have (assuming you have the TPs to move the guys, and the convoys to supply them) - first send some aircraft over the UK to see what the opposition is like. Then put most of your surface navy in one big fleet sail them into one side of the channel, putting all your TAC, NAV and CAS on naval strike. Then load up your TPs on the other side of the channel, wait for the RN to bite on your fleet, then quickly sail and hit the beaches on the far side. With luck, you'll get ashore, and if things are going relatively normally, you should be able to roll the UK pretty easily, though odds are your entire fleet will be dead by the end of the first week. You'll need a couple rotations of sea lift to get enough combat power to do the job depending on the size of your TP fleet. Of course, you could have a game like my current one, where the UK landed 35 divisions from across the commonwealth in Plymouth, making a shoestring invasion not a good idea.

Baseline - bring enough force to do the job, but remember that every division across the water must be supplied. Also, without an extensive air and naval campaign to destroy the RN, you can get across the channel quick, but it won't be cheap (or pretty).
 
Well, this is my first time playing as Germany, so I didn't really know exactly how much of my resources to put into a navy, but I was hoping to build some carriers after barbarossa and make a SAG. Also, with the number of interceptors that I have, should I be expect to be able to hold of England's bombing raids for long, or build more?
 
Don't bother with carriers as Germany, they will get completely trashed by the US navy due to your terrible doctrines. English bombers shouldn't really be a threatl, just more of a nuisance. 4 INT should be able to hold the UK bombers at bay.
 
Spend the rest of 1940 mopping up Europe, and send all your armored divisions to North Africa and blitz the British out. Concentrate on Barbarossa. Send all of your Allies troops to the invasion beaches in France. Aim for a 1942 Sealion after Barbarossa. For a decent enough navy start building now.
X6 type III or IV subs.
X6 lvl IV battlecruisers with fire control, radar and reinforced hulls.
X3 lvl IV light cruisers or destroyers.
Save around 40 IC for upgrades/repairs and build another 100 odd infantry divisions you will need for Barbarossa. Its OK if 50 odd of them are militia. 2 more batleships would be nice but don't worry. Make start researching Kampfgruppe land doctirin in the second half of 1940. Stick Donitz in charge as your naval commander if you build battlecruisers as he gives you +10%

Your airforce is big enough, so reduce any build down to 0 once the next lot are complete. You can always buy planes of Romania/Hungary/Italy repair and upgrade them if need be.
Barbarossa guide.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?469965-Barbarossa-A-101-Guide&p=10981754

if you can get the bitter peace you have essentially won. You'll have enough IC to build X18 battlecruisers or X12 battleships at once. Research ship assembly line and infantry assembly line as you probably won't need to make any more planes or tanks. Start researching naval doctrines as well.
 
In my opinion, Barbarossa could be finished around June - July 1941 if no major troubles happened.
Invasion to the England can be done immediately after the campaign in Russia, you can strategic deploy the most experience troops to France and leave those "new" infantry to safeguard the Eastern border first, Stalin has no power to touch you soon.
Before landing England, or even during the Russian Campaign, use your naval bomber to bomber the stupid RN first. Cleaning the sea and channel is the most important. Building at least 12 transports for the landing.
Starting the invasion by transporting 12 division to the sea next to Cardiff. Then paratroop your paratroopers to Cardiff. Since Cardiff has no beach, stupid AI would not defend it. Moving your transport immediately to Cardiff. Then you can have 15 division on Cardiff, should be enough to defead the 1st attack form UK army,
Of cos shipping more infantry to hold the beachhead... England will be in your hand by landing approx 40 divisions.
Be careful, US may stack 10 division in the small island just on the north of UK, next to Scrap Flow... So, be quick, so paratroop there...
 
Start in late May, and do a combination of blitz-ing to capture the four-five BP targets (Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Baku, Sverdlovsk) and encirclements to kill all of the Soviet army at the front. If you're quick, the AI won't even have any units in those cities.

Here's another strategy for Sea Lion: Have at least one paratrooper with a transport ready. Send a bomber over to England on a mission and look for an empty province. If Portsmouth is empty, then use a paratrooper to grab it, then just ferry troops in from Cherbourg as quick as possible. Taking a province with Amphibious Assault takes time even if the province is empty, and there's a chance the Royal Navy will stop you, but paratroopers who land on an empty province take it instantly. There is also the least distance between Cherbourg and Portsmouth, notice both ports are in the same sea-zone.

Of course, if Dover, Portsmouth and Plymouth are all guarded, then check Cardiff. This is usually unguarded because it lacks a beach. Use paratroopers to take it, then ferry soldiers from Brest to the now friendly port of Cardiff.

Note that if these strategies work and Sea Lion starts going underway, you will have to cut the British off before it makes all of its units retreat to Scotland. Having a 50 unit doomstack in Scapa Flow when you control the rest of the Isles is not fun. When you take everything, the British in North Africa should start to fall apart and the Italians should walk all over them, even if you haven't helped them at all. If they take the Suez and the Trans-Jordan area, then all the UK will have left is India and Burma, which is usually guarded by maybe one or two infantry. If that happens, you can either pray the Japanese take care of them for you, or invade them through Persia after BP. Though remember: Africa contains a lot of spare VP provinces here and there, so if your plan is complete annexation, you'll have to send an invasion force to conquer Africa... which is mostly Jungle, Hills, or Desert. Not fun.
 
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Karnack there is a Barbarossa guide in my signature. The quickest I have pulled off Barbarossa is 6 weeks. 3 months is usually better (read lower risk). A "fair" way to invade Britain is to build a big navy and marines to assault the beach. I usually use around 20 divisions of which maybe 6 are panzers or mech/mot infantry.