Hello and welcome to my first After Action Report! This game will be played using the following mods: Black Ice 8.5.2, Third Reich Events 4.36c, German Graphical Augment 8.3, Units of the Third Reich 1.75 and some of the DWorm's sub-mods. I also made some events and modifications of my own, but more on this later.
My purpose is to achieve world domination with Germany, while at the same time keeping everything plausible (no Sea Lion before an extensive naval building program, no gamey actions, no fortbuster divisions and so on). Also, you should expect a long and brutal war in the East.
Despite my wish to create a historical plausible experience, I will need to make some gameplay concessions, because of how Hearts of Iron works. The most important of these concessions is the fact that in 1936 and 1937 I will only build IC, because I will need massive amounts of it (you will see why).
In order to make this AAR as immersive and as accurate as I can, I will build a large Training Army stationed in Germany (the Ersatzheer), significant police forces (the Ordnungspolizei - stationed in Germany - should be about 400000 strong by 1944), a lot of occupation forces and land units subordinated to the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine to try and match the historical numbers. This build, as well as the whole AAR, will NOT be optimal, so I am sorry to disappoint you if you are looking for the best way to achieve victory.
My house rules are:
- No reloading or save scumming;
- No historical OOBs. Despite the fact that I wanted to do this, it will be just too much of a hassle. The only concessions I make are the following: historical Theatres, Army Groups and Armies, along with the historical commanders. Also, I will raise divisions respecting the Welle (Wave) system, at least for the time when the game will follow the historical course (for example, no Grenadier or Volksgrenadier division if I am winning). In this case, I will only keep the historical divisional numbers and the formation order. I am allowed to build divisions that never existed starting with Spring 1945 (if the AAR doesn't end until then, of course);
- Because I want a challenging experience, I will constantly check the AI and I will give him free units, if it is too stupid to make what it needs to exploit my weaknesses (for example, I will give the UK AI free fighters and strategic bombers, if it does not launch significant bombing campaigns). I also removed all of the German provincial AA, so the AI should bomb my industry.
- Role-playing. I will try to impersonate as best as I can the leadership of the Third Reich (yes, I will try to literally be Hitler);
- Historical cabinet members.
Now let's talk about the changes that I made.
Germany, Italy, UK, France, USA and USSR received custom modifiers, listed in the spoiler below.
Another major change is that the new buildings (excepting the research labs and the training centers) are now repairable, because the Germans used the armaments industry in the occupied countries for their needs. I will remove all of the unique factories from Poland and the occupied Soviet territories, because of the special type of the war waged in the East.
I also significantly decreased the air attack of the land units, because it was unrealistically high.
I am not a native speaker of English, so do not hesitate to correct me if I make mistakes. Also, I am by no means a World War 2 expert, so if you feel that something is implausible or wrong, let me know.
The first chapter will come out tomorrow. My aim is to have at least one weekly update but, because of my health issues, there could be delays.
My purpose is to achieve world domination with Germany, while at the same time keeping everything plausible (no Sea Lion before an extensive naval building program, no gamey actions, no fortbuster divisions and so on). Also, you should expect a long and brutal war in the East.
Despite my wish to create a historical plausible experience, I will need to make some gameplay concessions, because of how Hearts of Iron works. The most important of these concessions is the fact that in 1936 and 1937 I will only build IC, because I will need massive amounts of it (you will see why).
In order to make this AAR as immersive and as accurate as I can, I will build a large Training Army stationed in Germany (the Ersatzheer), significant police forces (the Ordnungspolizei - stationed in Germany - should be about 400000 strong by 1944), a lot of occupation forces and land units subordinated to the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine to try and match the historical numbers. This build, as well as the whole AAR, will NOT be optimal, so I am sorry to disappoint you if you are looking for the best way to achieve victory.
My house rules are:
- No reloading or save scumming;
- No historical OOBs. Despite the fact that I wanted to do this, it will be just too much of a hassle. The only concessions I make are the following: historical Theatres, Army Groups and Armies, along with the historical commanders. Also, I will raise divisions respecting the Welle (Wave) system, at least for the time when the game will follow the historical course (for example, no Grenadier or Volksgrenadier division if I am winning). In this case, I will only keep the historical divisional numbers and the formation order. I am allowed to build divisions that never existed starting with Spring 1945 (if the AAR doesn't end until then, of course);
- Because I want a challenging experience, I will constantly check the AI and I will give him free units, if it is too stupid to make what it needs to exploit my weaknesses (for example, I will give the UK AI free fighters and strategic bombers, if it does not launch significant bombing campaigns). I also removed all of the German provincial AA, so the AI should bomb my industry.
- Role-playing. I will try to impersonate as best as I can the leadership of the Third Reich (yes, I will try to literally be Hitler);
- Historical cabinet members.
Now let's talk about the changes that I made.
Germany, Italy, UK, France, USA and USSR received custom modifiers, listed in the spoiler below.
Germany: +10% manpower, +5% IC, -5% IC efficiency, -10% metal and energy, +5% rares and oil, +2,5% supplies, -10% air intercepting efficiency, +2,5% party popularity and +6 Revolt Risk
Italy: +7,5% manpower, -5% IC efficiency, -5% energy, +2,5% oil, -5% land, air and naval organisation and +6 Revolt Risk
UK: +5% manpower, +5% supplies, +2,5% espionage, +10% air intercepting efficiency, -10% air build speed and +3 Revolt Risk
France: +10% manpower, -5% party popularity, -5% land organisation, -5% territorial pride, +2,5% dissent and +3 Revolt Risk
USA: +15% manpower, +5% IC efficiency, +5% resources, -10% air build speed, -5% naval build speed and +3 Revolt Risk
USSR: +25% manpower, -2,5% land build speed, -5% IC efficiency, +5% resources, -15% officers, -10% casualty trickleback and +6 Revolt Risk
Italy: +7,5% manpower, -5% IC efficiency, -5% energy, +2,5% oil, -5% land, air and naval organisation and +6 Revolt Risk
UK: +5% manpower, +5% supplies, +2,5% espionage, +10% air intercepting efficiency, -10% air build speed and +3 Revolt Risk
France: +10% manpower, -5% party popularity, -5% land organisation, -5% territorial pride, +2,5% dissent and +3 Revolt Risk
USA: +15% manpower, +5% IC efficiency, +5% resources, -10% air build speed, -5% naval build speed and +3 Revolt Risk
USSR: +25% manpower, -2,5% land build speed, -5% IC efficiency, +5% resources, -15% officers, -10% casualty trickleback and +6 Revolt Risk
Another major change is that the new buildings (excepting the research labs and the training centers) are now repairable, because the Germans used the armaments industry in the occupied countries for their needs. I will remove all of the unique factories from Poland and the occupied Soviet territories, because of the special type of the war waged in the East.
I also significantly decreased the air attack of the land units, because it was unrealistically high.
I am not a native speaker of English, so do not hesitate to correct me if I make mistakes. Also, I am by no means a World War 2 expert, so if you feel that something is implausible or wrong, let me know.
The first chapter will come out tomorrow. My aim is to have at least one weekly update but, because of my health issues, there could be delays.
