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Eugenioso

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Sep 15, 2008
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  • Hearts of Iron Anthology
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Mine is not even Germany, its actually USSR '33. Not to hate on the german game but after beating SU with their cheating free divs so many times its upsetting (really, you've lost 24 million men and probably countless civilian lives and you still get free divs? No tnx). I actually enjoy USSR since its the greatest feeling in the world to get attacked unexpectedly by Germany in '40, where your infantry cant scrape German tanks and 1 of their divs can almost reliably push back 2 or 3 of yours. You're really grinding for time until the germs run out of fuel for the Panzers and until '42, where they will finally run out of MP and you can finally begin the counteroffensive. The feeling and joy of planning Maskirovka and preparing a mass attack on the germans to signal their Stalingrad will never not be an incredible feeling.

My greatest moment, which i still have in a savefile, is from the scenario stated above. In late '40, the germs just go full blitzkrieg on my ass, with about 30 arm divs and about 350 other divs, of which about 50 were allied ones. My army was, no joke, still moving into position, and i lost a few overrun divs here and there, until finally winter came full force and german attacks slowed down just enough for me to get tons of ARM and INF with the occasional HQ sprinkled in. '41 is another slaughterfest and i get pushed back north to Leningrad, 2 provinces short of Moscow and the Dniepr in the south holding back the main german forces. Finally German manpower runs out and i plan my Stalingrad: i gather about 30 or 40 armored divs (out of like about 100, so 1/3 of my armored force) in the baltics, launch pinning attacks against the german center/central south and, when the germs sends their tanks south, BAM! deep pen onto Riga. In the end, about 35 german divs get pinned and eventually destroyed, even though they almost broke out of the encirclement over 3 times. After that it was a sweet and bloody ride all the way to Paris.
 
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What free divisions do you get for Germany? I only remember getting a militia or something for Danzig and whatever comes with Anshluss.

For greatest moment, it's always successful Barbarossa. So much pressure is relieved and victory is all but assured. Second place would be invading USA with Japan.

USA and USSR games don't have that; since the expectation and historical outcome is to win, and the geostrategic position is much less threatening.

The closest as allies is puppeting occupied allied territories and former axis with Communism after defeating the axis. After puppeting Japan, USA declared war almost immediately. With FDR being President, I don't consider this something that would be possible. Someone besides FDR maybe.
 
Germany recieves a bunch of free, late WWI tech, low strength infantry divisions in the 1933 scenario by event, which is actually rather fair as the German military in the Interbellum was constructed in such a way to allow for rapid expansion should the time come. You also receive Austria's military for free, Danzig's military (basically nothing) and a free light armour division once you end Czechoslovakia.

Personally, probably my favorite game ever was a game in Kaiserreich with the American Union State. Europe was overrun by the Third Internationale, Germany joined the Entente and North Africa was being invaded by the Commune of France. After I had cleared Central America of Syndies and had rebuiltAmerica into a absolute industrial powerhouse I intervened in the Second Weltkrieg and singlehandedly won it, destroying basically the entire CoF armoured force with a combined land-sea-air attack by encircling it on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. It was a years long struggle but I ended up liberating all of Europe up untill the borders of a revanchist Wrangelist Russian Empire.
 
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What free divisions do you get for Germany? I only remember getting a militia or something for Danzig and whatever comes with Anshluss.

For greatest moment, it's always successful Barbarossa. So much pressure is relieved and victory is all but assured. Second place would be invading USA with Japan.

USA and USSR games don't have that; since the expectation and historical outcome is to win, and the geostrategic position is much less threatening.

The closest as allies is puppeting occupied allied territories and former axis with Communism after defeating the axis. After puppeting Japan, USA declared war almost immediately. With FDR being President, I don't consider this something that would be possible. Someone besides FDR maybe.
Invading the USA as Japan is so disappointing. I sent 20 divisions to meet maybe 6 US divisions in California.

Probably sunk 10 divisions inside transports in the struggle for Hawaii.

Maybe you are supposed to wait for them to get strong? Decided not to puppet Thailand and keep my China-india/Burma front limited to a few provinces.
 
The way you describe the campaign against Germany sounds quite historical; I'm sure it's actually nerve-wracking until the moment you get that big encirclement! I kind of hate the anxiety that planning an encirclement gives me! There's usually so many ways the enemy can try to counter and cut off your forces instead.

My favorites were the first few times I beat Germany as France. It was an obsessive challenge to prove that the French can hold the line in 1940. To all would-be French players, I should warn you the game really is not designed for your success in that position; as such, you'll be completely starved for events and game content after the initial defense. There's not even a Lend-Lease event for the Republic - only Free France!

Recently I managed to take Berlin as Poland in 1939. It was absolutely sweet to get the "Hitler Suicide" event less than a month after he started his war. Sadly, there is no German surrender event, so Poland is in for a slow asphyxiation, even if it is at the hands of a Germany ruled by Herman Goering.
 
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I had a pretty fun campaign as USSR trying to fight the real ennemy : USA ! Starting in 1933 and invading USA by 1939, I really struggled, when I was about to finally break USA and reach east cost, UK declared war on me, freeing sereval american pockets, by 1941 I'm a slowly making progress to win the war. But now germany await to invade me. Will I be able to secure USA first ? I will surely lose the first war against germany but can I win the second one thanks to the american industrial base ? I really love this game as it is really hard
 
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I had a pretty fun campaign as USSR trying to fight the real ennemy : USA ! Starting in 1933 and invading USA by 1939, I really struggled, when I was about to finally break USA and reach east cost, UK declared war on me, freeing sereval american pockets, by 1941 I'm a slowly making progress to win the war. But now germany await to invade me. Will I be able to secure USA first ? I will surely lose the first war against germany but can I win the second one thanks to the american industrial base ? I really love this game as it is really hard
I've found ahistorical wars very tiresome in the game. Waging war against USA as USSR in my game just drags on and on, even when I'm winning handily there's no peace without a pointless march across the planet to some distant VP spot. Nuke Jerusalem twice, each time full of 50+ pretty fresh USA divisions. Finally get the big surrender of almost their entire army in Tel Aviv, 150 divisions. No big deal to them, it's like nothing even happened. A better game would have modeled consequences from negative outcomes of this kind, even less severe and catastrophic ones.
 
I've found ahistorical wars very tiresome in the game. Waging war against USA as USSR in my game just drags on and on, even when I'm winning handily there's no peace without a pointless march across the planet to some distant VP spot. Nuke Jerusalem twice, each time full of 50+ pretty fresh USA divisions. Finally get the big surrender of almost their entire army in Tel Aviv, 150 divisions. No big deal to them, it's like nothing even happened. A better game would have modeled consequences from negative outcomes of this kind, even less severe and catastrophic ones.
I do agree that ahistorical wars are not very fun unless you're playing with mods that account for them. I think it's due to a lack of diplomacy; peace comes either via annexation or a scripted peace deal, and obviously in the case of ahistorical wars, only the former exists. That means you're in for a tedious grind.

As I mentioned, even playing historical WWII becomes shockingly boring if you manage to survive ahistorically as a democracy; France after 1940 gets virtually no events (as game files only have events for VICHY France or FREE France, which is not plain France), Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium get virtually nothing either. I would think survival as any of these nations should be quite rewarding if one can pull it off, but instead the game simply breaks as a result. It's almost insulting to see the "Out of war" event in 1944-45 which mentions surviving unscathed when in reality you carried the entire Allies faction on your back as Poland.

TLDR: Darkest Hour is not designed for ahistorical outcomes, except for the obvious one - the German Reich wins WWII.
 
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Most fun to play is Italy from 1933 as just big enough to have a full air, sea and land force but has huge responsibilities compared to its capabilities.

Most fun is using those limited capabilities to turn the war. Racing motorised units across North Africa and into the middle east defeating the British several times along the way. Then conquering Iraq and declaring war on Persia. A huge race to conquer it quickly both before too many British Raj Units get involved and before Barbarossa starts.

With Persia conquered a blocking force can hold off the british Raj whilst the main Italian army captures the soviets oil producing provinces in the caucauses dooming them to defeat.

All this whilst dealing with American and British landings in the med and keeping Italian East Africa in the war as the pressure of seemingly limitless Allied resources gradually increases.

When the soviets eventually give in and the main Italian army is released the tables can be turned and the British Raj and South Africa conqured. Ive even continued to successful italian invasions of the UK and US but those early years when you are fighting on multiple fronts against vastly superior enemies and seemingly constantly on verge of a disaster are the most satisfying.
 
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Hungary and Romania
Hear me out: you get some good techteams and place to grow - releasing puppets like Ukraine or (Romania) land in caucasus, turning point of the war. Similar could be said for commonwealth nations - SAF/Canada/Australia - relatively small manpower base demands from you to focus on air and fast units, to make difference in the war
 
Nazi Germany, 1933 Scenario. The best moment was my first successful build of Three Infantry Army Groups before Danzig on September 1st, 1939. Each Infantry Army Group consisted of the following 3 Army Formations:

One Sledgehammer Army of 6 square-based infantry Divisions. With 12 brigades.

Two infantry armies of 6 infantry Divisions each. No brigades.

One Army Group Reserve Corps, of 3 Infantry Divisions. With no brigades.

One HQ Division with an Anti Aircraft Brigade.

In total, this default Infantry Army Group, consisted of 22 Divisions and 13 Brigades.

On top of that, there was also a Wehrmacht Reserve Army of 12 Infantry Divisions with no brigades. Plus a Wehrmacht Reserve Army Corps of 3 Infantry Divisions. No brigades.

One Independent Mountain Army with 6 divisions in total.

One Cavalry Army Corps, of 3 Cavalry and 1 Semi-Motorized Cavalry Divisions.

Later on, before the Barbarossa event, I added a Panzer Army Group consisting of 30–40 Panzers and Motorized divisions. After Barbarossa, I began building a Fourth Infantry Army Group, also with a default size of 22 Divisions. And after that, a Fifth Infantry Army group. I also increased the size of the Wehrmacht Reserve and added an Airborne Infantry Corps with brigades and a Marine Infantry Corps with brigades. On top of that, I also build various Garrisons and HQ reserve Divisions.
 
My favorite was USA kaiseriech. Played dictator MacArthur and did a world conquest. The ACW is well done in that mod
Iirc, I did an aar on that one.
 
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