The German Empire - HOI3 AAR.

[OJsDad]

One thing I just found and do not like.  Even though at this point I have taken most of England, I'm not getting their industrial points.  Also, just like my units in East Prussia, I cannot upgrade them or retrain them without bringing them back to the main land.  If they are in the Netherlands then I can.  Very frustrating.

[JasonPratt]

Hm, odd. You should be able to get their IC somehow, but I don't recall how (and don't have enough experience yet in HOI2:DH to make a suggestion).

It's possible you're getting only a fraction of their IC until you annex their country altogether; if you took over the Dutch completely, that might explain a lot of the difference.

What kind of options do you get if you right-click on an English territory? Any options to do with factories or infrastructure?

I can kind of understand why you need a securely knocked-out nation to directly retrain and upgrade troops; but if you're willing to sacrifice experience there's a way around that: disband the division and send it back to manpower for production of a fresh unit. You still have to roll it out from your farthest national province (or port or airport if it's naval or air, and depending on how developed the facility is), but you'll save time marching it back home anyway. Alternately, gin up a fresh division or brigade and then once it's deployed dismiss the outdated one off the battle/occupation line sending it back to manpower to make up the difference after the fact.

[OJsDad]

PART III

The bright star bursts flashed continuously in the night sky illuminating the faces of those standing there.  The distant rumble from the explosions washed over us all on the palace balcony.  The man made thunder was accompanied by the oohs and ahs of not only the children but also the adults, myself included.  I had always loved fireworks.  And tonight, every pyrotechnic in the Empire was being fired off.  France had capitulated the day before, September 5th 1944. 




Her government had fled and established a capital in Hanoi.  They still had some power in the Far East.  Japan wasn't totally out of the fight, but she had a long way to go to stand on her own.  And with the Americans pushing, along with the British, Dutch, and French forces there, it was not looking hopeful for them.  I think the best we could hope for is that the Japanese will be able to keep the Allied forces there occupied while we cleanup things in our part of the world. 







At this moment General von Manstein, commander of 1st Panzer Army, which had lead the attack into England, and Admiral Raeder, were making plans to invade Northern Ireland.  That, along with the northern parts of Scotland were still in British hands, but that should be changed by end of the year.

We had almost waited too long to make a move against France.  We were fine with not going after them until we had the Netherlands and the British Isles secured.  But then the Italians had made an offensive into southern France.  While they were successful in pushing the French out of Briancon, they were themselves kicked out a short time later.  Not only had they lost their gains, but the French pursued the retreating Italians into Italy and broke through the defenses there.  In fact, the French had been able to push an armored division far enough east that it got into southern Germany.  This required us to divert 6th Corps and a Panzer division from 5th Panzer Corps to block them.  This was made easier with the Mountain Corps getting in behind the French and cutting off their supplies.




But with the Italians in headlong retreat, we had to act.  Admiral Raeder and General von Manstein activated a modified version of Operation Versailles.  Second Panzer Corps had remained in southern England in case the Allies attempted to land forces there.  So they, along with the Marine and Fallschirmjager Corps made their moves into northern France. 
The 2nd Panzer landed in La Harve and the Marines landed in Dieppe.  We have no idea why the French high command moved the units in Paris out to meet this invasion and not the units sitting along the Belgium border, but it meant the Fallschirmjager were able to land unopposed. 



While the a sea and air invasion was taking place in western France, the 5th Panzer Corps was attempting  to punch a hole through the Maginot Line at Wissembourg.  They took quite a few casualties, but they were successful in the end.  We had hoped that once through, 5th Panzer would be able to sweep around north and cut off the French forces in Metz, Sarreguemines and Cattenom.  However, after moving through Schirmeck and into Nancy, the French counter attacked into Schirmeck and pushed the single Panzer division there out.  After a number of large battles, Schirmeck exchanged hands several times. 




While the balance was to be determined in eastern France, it was also up in the air in northern France.  The French high command had decided to move the units along the Belgium border to counter 5th Panzer.  This kept the 2nd from being able to move to the relief of the Fallschirmjager in Paris.  It was decided that the Marines needed to remain in Dieppe to ensure that port was not captured and the 2nd supplies cutoff.  The solution was to move the 4th Panzergrenadier from Holland to Dieppe.  From there, they moved into Gamaches, while the 2nd moved around the south of Neufchatel en Bray to Abbeville, cutting off the large Allied force in Neufchatel and destroying them.  This allow the 4th to move to the Belgium border and start move east and the 2nd to secure Paris and move east to link up with the 5th. 

Then, just as the two Panzer corps were linking up, the French suddenly gave up in France, leaving us in control of the entire country, even though we were only in the northern portion. 



In the Bulkans, the Bulgarians had driven the Greeks out of Bulgaria and was driving deep into Greece.  While in North Africa, the Italians had lost their initial gains, but were now holding their own.



It's hard to believe that in just ten years, I had reclaimed the Imperial throne, established what I had termed an Imperial Representative government, pulled Germany out of the depths of economic depression, and have now conquered two of the most power countries in the world in less than seven months.

If that psychopath from Austria hadn't allowed his elevation to the Chancellorship to believe he was a dictator, all of this may not have come to be.  But He had to start his Night of the Long Knives.  The execution was fumbled from the start by missing several key targets, including leaders within his own party.  This triggered not only caused open fighting within the party, but open street fighting with the other political parties also.  The military was frozen, not sure what to do or which side to take.

So, with his desperation to get control of the situation, he had asked to meet with me, hoping that my voice would help.  We had meet before, and I had even offered him support, even though I wasn't in support of all of his more, radical, ideas.  BUt he seemed to inspire the German people.  But he had made one huge mistak.  One of his first targets was his predecessor, and my close friend, Kurt von Schleicher.  Not only was Kurt killed, but his wife was also. 

Walking into his office, he came from around his desk and shook hands with me.  Never had my skin crawled at the touch of someone before, but it did with that handshake.  Looking into his eyes, I could tell he had not slept in days.  There was perhaps something else there also, perhaps some stimulants that he was rumored to be addicted to.  While I only had one body guard with me, he had two of own in his office, along with two of his lieutenants, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels. 

The little Austrian began ranting and raving about the chaos erupting throughout the country.  He demanded that I make a speech to the country, demanding the army come to his aide, as the rightful Chancellor of Germany.  The whole time he stood within a foot of me.  'It's a shame that Kurt had been killed in all of the fighting.'

He seemed confused for a moment, and then it occurred to him for whom I was talking about.  'Yes, well, the casualties of war.  But in the end, his death will be forgotten'

In an agreed upon phrase with my body guard, Franz, I reply 'Yes, I suppose.  Still, too bad that Elisabeth was also killed.  But thank god their daughter was not hurt. '

'God had nothing to do with it.  It was all my design'

There were four quick cracks that left all in the room deafened momentarily.  The little Austrians two guards slumped to the floor, each shot twice by Franz.  At the sound of the first shot, He squatted down as far as he could with his hands over his head.  I reach down and yank him to his feet taking his pistol and discarding it, as more shots could be heard in the outer office where my other guards were taking care of things.  Franz's gun barks again killing Himmler.  He had a gun sitting on the couch beside him under some papers.  When he thought that Franz had been distracted he had made a move for it.

Slowly and quietly, I pull the dagger from the scabbard of His belt.  Looking into his frightened eyes, I tell him his hatred and drive for power was no longer welcome in my Germany. 

'Where...where are you sending me.  Back to Austria?  They won't take me.  Neither will the French, British, or Soviets'

'No.  There is only one place that you'll be welcomed.'  And I slowly shove the knife under his ribs and into his heart.  As his eyes grow wide with the realization of what was happening, I lean forward and whisper in his ear 'To Hell'

I allow the dagger to slip from my hand had he slides back to the floor, still imbedded in his heart. 

Turning, Franz and I turn to face the only other person in the room, Gobbels.  With Franz's pistol pointing at him, his eyes dart
back and forth from the two of us.  Then he slid from his chair onto one knee, hands folded on his one knee, and head bowed. 

'Your Majesty.  The radio room here in the Chancellery is still operational.  We can use it to broadcast a message to the country to let them know the changes that have happened and implore them to stop the fighting.  I believe the army will even side with you.'

He's good.  Not a break in his voice.  Not a quiver.  No sign of fear.  And he went from obedient lap to dog for one master to the lap dog for another.  Perhaps I'll have to see about keeping him on if things work out, and he doesn't stray.

'Alright Joseph.  Let us go see if we can put an end to this mess.'

[Martok]

<slow clap>


Well done, OJsDad.  Very well done indeed.  :) 

[undercovergeek]

i think you get 50% ic for government in exile

[OJsDad]

<slow clap>


Well done, OJsDad.  Very well done indeed.  :)

Thanks Marktok. 

I feel like I've rushed the AAR too much.  The story telling isn't as good as I would like.  I definitely feel that my China AAR for Victoria 2 is a lot better. 

I'm going to slow down my game now and write more story for the AAR.  There may still be some jumps in time if there is not much going on though.

Thanks for reading.

[JasonPratt]

I definitely feel that my China AAR for Victoria 2 is a lot better. 

Which would be here: http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=2452.0  :D

[OJsDad]

Part IV

'Alright gentlemen, let's get this meeting started.  General Beck, why don't you start with how things are going currently'

'Yes you Majesty.  First, in Scotland, British forces are pretty much trapped in the north west.  General Rommel is moving up along the east coast to cut off any supplies getting to British forces from there.  Once that is complete, taking the rest of the country should be pretty quick.'



'Admiral Raeder is preparing for Operation Sealion II, which will land forces into Northern Ireland.  We'll be using 2nd Panzer Corps, the Marines and the Fallschjager out of France for this operation.  We do not anticipate much trouble with taking our objective.'

'With the taking of France, we're having to scramble to get forces to protect it.  We've got one corps moving to the Toulon region and one to the Bordeaux region to cover the southern part of the country.  We've also got one corps moving the Brest area and one to the Caen region to cover the north.  What we really need, is more garrison units to free up the panzergrenadier units so they can form heavy fast reaction forces to any invasion attempts.'

'The Bulgarians continue to put the pressure on the Greeks.  Currently, about half of Greece is under their control.  The Italians are going back in forth with the British in both Egypt and Ethiopia.  They are having some better luck with the French in northwestern Africa.'




'As for the Japanese, they're still getting hammered by the combined forces of the Allies.'

'Finally, we're finished our survey work on where to place the radar sites.  While the British had a couple, they were all focused against us.  The French and Dutch on the other hand had investing nothing into them.  We currently have a number under construction here in Germany, however, with the constraints on industry right now, we feel we should pause construction on them, and start getting the new radar line up.'

Looking up from his note, General Becks across the round table to the Kaiser and state's that is all he has to report on current operations at the moment.

'Thank you Ludwig.  I think that's a great idea on the radar stations.  Please start making the necessary arrangements.  Speaking of industrial constraints, why don't you tell us where things stand Hjalmar.'

Taking a few seconds to look over his note, Armament Minister Hjalmar Schacht then took off his glasses as he looked up.

'As is always the case we don't have enough industry to meet the demands of our country.  I've talked it over with the General Staff and we're in agreement on a couple of changes.   First, as General Beck stated, we'll pause work on the current radar sites, and start on the new one.'

'Second, we have six panzer brigades forming up.  Those will be done by end of the month, and we need more for the grenadier divisions.  But, instead of six, we'll go with forming four at a time.'

'Third, we have eleven grenadier brigades reform as mechanized units.  When those finish, we'll cut the number down to six.  Forth, when the two carrier wings finish, we'll go with one at a time.'

'With the savings, we'll start work on the Type-XXI U-Boats, V2 rockets, a new Panzer division, and supply and escort ships.  We need those desperately. ' concludes Hjalmar.

I turn to face Goring.  'Herman what is the Luftwaffe's opinion on these changes.

Goring looked over at Hjalmar, and for a moment, I thought there might be an issue.  'Well, your Majesty, while any commander would like more aircraft, I'll be more than happy to get the V2's.  When it comes time to take on the Soviets, we plan on using them to neutralize their airfields within range.  And, I'll be more happy to get the units we currently have upgraded to the latest models.'

'Erich, what is the Navy's view.'

'Your Majesty.  I would like to have the carrier air wings sooner than later.  But I need those U-Boats if we are going to make a dent in the Allied convoys.'

'And, your Majesy, they Army is happy with the changes.  Or, as happy as we can be.' Werner von Fritsch, Chief of the Army volunteered.

'Alright Hjalmar, make  your changes.  Anything else'

'Only that we expect some more production from France to come on line in the next month as repairs and upgrades are made.  And, as we free up production from the need to repair battle damage to units, we'll redirect it to upgrading equipment.'

I take a minute to digest what has been presented.  I cannot think of any reason to disagree with anything that Hjalmar wants to do.

'Alright Ludwig, you and your conspirators in the military took all of that well, even if you knew about it before hand.  So let's hear it.'

'Well Majesty.  We have been working on one or two, maybe even half a dozen ideas.'  That brought a round of chuckles from around the table.

''Before I begin.  We all agree that we need to complete our current operations in the British Isles.  And all of our proposals will either not interfere or will take place after the England is secured. '

'First, we are unanimous in our beliefs that we must take out both Belgium and Luxemburg. '



I don't think my eyebrows could rise any further up my head.  It's not that I had any love for either country, but it did surprise me.

'We have a large boarder with Belgium now and we'll have to commit a significant number of units to guarding it.  By taking them out, we shorten our defensive lines and open up more lines for supply and communications.'

I nod to Constantin von Neurath, my Foreign Minister, with a raised hand for attention. 

'The Belgiums are in the back pocket of the Allies.  I'm not sure why they didn't join them before France fell.  But we have the Foreign office believe that if they think they can give us a whack, they'll jump at the change.  Especially if our forces are else where occupied.'

'Alright Ludwig, continue with your wish list'

'Of course your Majesty.  Next, if we move against Belgium, then once 5th Panzer Corps is done there, we would want to move them into North Africa to help the Italians.  More specifically, we want to secure the Suez Canal and Syria.'

'We're also looking at options on Denmark.  That would give us a more secure boarder, but more importantly, we would like control of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland for naval and air units.  Once the Marines are freed up in Northern Ireland, then we will want to use them in Bermuda.  Again, we will want to operate U-Boats and bombers against the US from there.'

'We also think that taking Ireland has some advantages, though according to Constantin, we may be able to bring them in as allies.'

'Finally, we would like to look at taking Yugoslavia and Romania.  Neither one is close to us.  With Yugoslavia, we would have a second region of the Mediterranean with ports.  As for Romania, having control of her oil fields and refinery would be a big boost to our military.  And, as a bonus, we would have another avenue of attack against Russia.'

I sit there contemplating all that he had presented for a couple of minutes.  Finally I state 'Alight Ludwig, start your preparation for Belgium and Luxemburg.  Let's get them out of the way before they become an issue.  And, when the 5th is freed from there, let get them into North Africa.'

'With the exception of Bermuda, let's think about it for a while.  Go ahead and start drawing up detailed plans for each, but I don't think we want to commit to any of them yet.'

'If that is all gentlemen, then I think we can call it a day'

[MetalDog]

France, the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium and one or two more have provinces all over the world.  Some of them are even VP.  That might hinder your IC and capitulation.

[JasonPratt]

Absolutely can testify to that from my Darkest Hour game (HOI2:DDARMA+). During winter of 14/15, Germany had Belgium utterly beaten in Europe, only one province left (next to Dunkirk), capitol taken, etc. I've just started July, and Belgium is kicking all kinds of German booty. They've surrounded one army in Antwerp, reclaimed the capitol province, and only lack two more territories getting their whole nation back. My guess (due to fog of war) is that the French have started setting up trench defenses on their short border with Germany, and are lending expeditionary forces (maybe along with Britain) to basically pull a WW2 Belgium end-around blitz on Germany (instead of vice versa). But that could only happen because Belgium has a ton of central Africa under its control, even though it has only one teensy little port on the sw coast (so small that on the largest zoom it looks like Belgium has no African access to the sea at all).

My Ethiopians are going, "We hope we only have to fight the British and Italy and France and maybe the Germans, and not the Belgians! -- they look like they're made out of dragons!!"  8)

[OJsDad]

A couple of thoughts;

I think the issue has to due with the countries being part of the Alllies.  I tried an experiment and took out Luxemburg.  I did not see an increase in my IC.  When I declared war on them, they were not part of any faction.  But before I could take control, they had joined the Allies.  Same with Belgium.  There are notes in the manuals that a member of a faction doesn't surrender until all members have been captured.  So that may also be part of it.

I'm going to try and take Yugoslavia and see if a) they join the Allies before I can capture them b) If not, do I see a noticible uptick in IC.

[JasonPratt]

Unless they have 10 factories you aren't going to see a single uptick in IC, regardless. When a country capitulates that might improve the IC access somewhat, but taking a province (at least back in HOI2 and I don't know why this would change) wrecks havoc on infrastructure and IC access. There are various abilities which help offset this, some of which are techs and some of which are special brigade powers (like having a combat engineer brigade attached to a conquering division); but there's still a hit to both the factory production and the infrastructure, and (so far as I can tell) until the supporting infrastructure recovers, the ICs from factories won't be available (by proportion) even if they themselves are back to 100%. E.g., until the infrastructure is back to 30% which is usually the minimum to operate even one factory, you aren't going to get that factory back to 100% operational. (The factory may still be contributing an improving fraction of that. I kind of doubt it, though, because I don't see a fractional IC being contributed to my available IC total -- still exactly 6.0 -- from the factory I took in Khartoum, my only non-national factory so far, even though it reads as having a slowly improving fractional IC contribution. But the infrastructure hasn't come back up to 30% either.)

Infrastructure and factories are restored at progressively continuing rates (affected by techs and inherent abilities) over time, but I don't know yet whether a division has to be stationed there (garrison or reserves or otherwise) to have that effect, or whether it impedes the effect, or helps the effect -- though I expect having combat engineer brigades helps the effect.

[OJsDad]

Jason,

   I understand what you saying, but I dont think that is the case.  None of the French territories have any factory or infrastructure damaged.

[JasonPratt]

When you click on a province in HOI3, does it bring up a sidebar with little icons for various things that might be in the province, including factories and infrastructure?

If it does (or something like it, the interface may have changed, but that's the way it was in HOI2), there may be tooltip rollovers which popup when the mouse hovers over the buttons for infrastructure and factories. Red in any case means damage, but that would more clearly show what fraction of the IC or infrastructure is currently operative (at least in theory).

For example, Khartoum originally had an infrastructure of 30% before I invaded, then it dropped to something like 16%, and it wasn't much more than back to 26% before I had to run the hell away while I still had a chance strategically withdraw. ;) In an annexed territory the icon might not show up as red but the fraction might still be more-fractional until local conditions re-improve.

I'm having to make guesses, sorry...  :-\ You could pm undercovergeek, he's played with the HOI3 engine a lot.

[OJsDad]

I posted the question over on the Paradox forums and it was pointed out that I needed to change the Occupation policy for each country.  The default is Collaboration.  This gives good Leadership but the very little IC or Resources.  By change to Total Exploitation, I get lots of IC and Resources but almost no Leadership.

When I changed all three to Total Exploitation, by base IC jumped to 295 from 186 and my actual jumped to 523 from 331.  However, my Leadership dropped from 54.93 to 42.48.  That's a big hit to research.  So I need to find the right mix.