Two questions - Germany playthrough

[Alexsejo]

I've started playing HOI4 again after a long time. A lot has changed with the new updates and DLCs. (I have them all enabled since I have a subscription through Steam.)


I have two questions:


First: How can I achieve autarky as Germany , assuming I want to play using the historical conquest path?


Second: What's the best strategy for the Pripyat Marshes when Operation Barbarossa begins — bypass and encircle, attack through the swamp, or something else?

 

[Tisifoni12]

There are autarchy related economic focuses; do them and minimise imports. Build at least six synthetics factories (you can get some from focuses) and do the oil and rubber technologies.

Pripyat is bad terrain:

• encircle and cut off means covering a lot of tiles around the edge and you'll still need to push into it to finish off the encircled and out of supply enemy divisions
• fighting through it can mean just advancing slowly with just enough troops while you focus on taking ground to south and north; the troops in the marshes will if sensible retire rather than getting isolated in the marshes

 

[stormsand9]

Just conquer the Soviet Union with collab governments, then set occupation law to forced labor and have all excavation techs. for the Rubber build refineries. For Tungsten conquer Sweden after Soviet Union

Pripyat Marshes? Swamp Terrain? Never heard of it, I just click my big Green battleplan icon on all my field marshalls and generals and watch my troops go brrrrr

 

[Silens]

First: How can I achieve autarky as Germany , assuming I want to play using the historical conquest path?

The resource requirements are pretty clear in the focus itself, that is what you have to reach to be able to take the focus. You have the resource map mode, so you see where resources are. That makes it very clear where you have to conquer to get autarky.

You also know that occupation lowers the extracted amount by -65%. And you should also know that occupation mode, supply hubs in the region, infrastructure, excavation tech, MIOs, advisors etc. can improve the extraction rate.

In practical terms, Sweden and Portugal give you the Tungsten, France gives you the Steel and Aluminum (Hungary as well), Chromium is found in Turkey and the Balkans, and the only two real problems are Rubber and Oil. Oil is a mix of Romania and either the Caucasus or Iran/Iraq, and Rubber you simply build yourself. If you invade DEI/Netherlands early, you solve Oil (Curacao, Borneo) and Rubber (Indonesia) issues even earlier.

Second: What's the best strategy for the Pripyat Marshes when Operation Barbarossa begins — bypass and encircle, attack through the swamp, or something else?

Assuming you use tanks for the attack, stay clear of the swamps. Go around, encircle, then close it and move on.

The best strategy for the Soviets starts way before the armed conflict: using collab governments to lower the surrender limit. If you don't want to walk all the way behind the Ural mountains, do the collabs in the years before Barbarossa, it's the most efficient way.

 

[Ossiv]

The resource requirements are pretty clear in the focus itself, that is what you have to reach to be able to take the focus. You have the resource map mode, so you see where resources are. That makes it very clear where you have to conquer to get autarky.

You also know that occupation lowers the extracted amount by -65%. And you should also know that occupation mode, supply hubs in the region, infrastructure, excavation tech, MIOs, advisors etc. can improve the extraction rate.

In practical terms, Sweden and Portugal give you the Tungsten, France gives you the Steel and Aluminum (Hungary as well), Chromium is found in Turkey and the Balkans, and the only two real problems are Rubber and Oil. Oil is a mix of Romania and either the Caucasus or Iran/Iraq, and Rubber you simply build yourself. If you invade DEI/Netherlands early, you solve Oil (Curacao, Borneo) and Rubber (Indonesia) issues even earlier.


Assuming you use tanks for the attack, stay clear of the swamps. Go around, encircle, then close it and move on.

The best strategy for the Soviets starts way before the armed conflict: using collab governments to lower the surrender limit. If you don't want to walk all the way behind the Ural mountains, do the collabs in the years before Barbarossa, it's the most efficient way.

Yes, the collaboration governments give faster surrender and smoother governance after. However, doing collab more than once makes surrender happen too soon, at least for me. IRL the Soviet Union did not surrender easy and in game also it should not be too easy, I want a good fight. Only Hitler thought the Soviet Union would fall when the door is kicked, but it was not so.

 

[Silens]

Yes, the collaboration governments give faster surrender and smoother governance after. However, doing collab more than once makes surrender happen too soon, at least for me. IRL the Soviet Union did not surrender easy and in game also it should not be too easy, I want a good fight. Only Hitler thought the Soviet Union would fall when the door is kicked, but it was not so.

In terms of victory points, if we translate the irl situation to the game, Germany failed to take all the key cities: Leningrad held out, Moscow wasn't taken, Stalingrad wasn't taken, Vladivostok was waaaay out of reach. Only Kiev and Sevastapol were taken, with the latter dragging on with its siege and halting the spearhead to the Caucasus for longer than anticipated.

Even with three collabs, without all those victory points, you'd be hard pressed to force any surrender.