HOI AAR report

[Cookie Monster]

Hi all,

I thought I¡¦d share with you a sort of pseudo AAR on my current game. I¡¦m not sure if anyone has written an AAR on HOI here before so I thought I¡¦d jump in. I¡¦m playing the 1939 campaign as Germany, setting normal/normal (I¡¦m not that good a player so don¡¦t laugh ƒº ).

So far I¡¦ve conquered Poland by December of 1939. The sitzkrieg in the west lasted until April 28 of 1940 when I had sufficient forces assembled to launch Operation Sickle Stroke. War was declared against the Netherlands and Belgium in order to carry out the campaign.

Well we had a hard time beating the Netherlands, they didn¡¦t fall until sometime in mid 1941! I guess I didn¡¦t send sufficient forces to that part of the front because all my panzers were slicing through Belgium and northern France. Belgium fell but France held out. The campaign dragged. Below is a screenshot of the situation in November 1940.

More to follow.....

[Cookie Monster]

Here's another screenshot showing the situation in January of 1941. As you can see France has fallen and I had the Vichy event which Germany accepted.

Note that there were some canadian troops in the French Alps that still had control of two provinces. It took a long time to root them out simply because all of the French army reappeared there after a month! They probably were still in France proper when France surrendered but since I hadn't cleared all foreign troops out France had a place to strategically relocate the remnants of their army.

At this point the Netherlands still hasn't fallen. Italy is not part of the Axis yet either despite repeated calls to join.

[Cookie Monster]

Here's my final screenshot. I gave up on this game because The allies landed in southern France with 40 divisions and the Russians had a 50 division breakthrough at Lublin. I was unable to stabilize either front.

I did manage to get Italy involved in the war and Rumania and Hungary both joined the axis as well.

My big mistake here was not producing enough units. I kept production down to avoid losing all my rubber and oil but realized that I could have pushed the industry and research to their limits as I had a massive income of coal and steel. Oh well time to start again but this time maybe with 1.06C patch!

[Agathon]

I'm in Oct 1940 and I'm about where you are in your second screenshot. I am having a bit of trouble though as the Brits have huge stacks of fighters which is making the invasion prospects look bleak. I have Hungary, Romania, Italy and Bulgaria on my side so far.

[Cookie Monster]

I had that problem too with the RAF's air superiority. I wasn't able to ever gain air superiority on the western front but then the USSR declared war on me. Sent my airforce to the eastern front where the going was a little more easier.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Agathon
I'm in Oct 1940 and I'm about where you are in your second screenshot. I am having a bit of trouble though as the Brits have huge stacks of fighters which is making the invasion prospects look bleak. I have Hungary, Romania, Italy and Bulgaria on my side so far.

Agathon, try landing near Scapa Flow, sweeping around the British Isles rather than crossing the English Channel.

Here is a link to a short AAR I put together at VPLtd.'s forum.

Currently, I'm playing as the SU w/ CORE v0.83, and its been fun. Unfortunately, I'm using 1.06 and the nan resource bug that fires when you capture particular capitals has hit me twice. Fortunately, I've been saving right before I capture a capital.

In this screen shot, I've got Berlin encircled. I don't know what to do, because Berlin, if captured will fire the bug. We'll (Macintosh players) are getting the 1.06c patch, but I'm not aware of as to when.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Cookie Monster
My big mistake here was not producing enough units. I kept production down to avoid losing all my rubber and oil but realized that I could have pushed the industry and research to their limits as I had a massive income of coal and steel. Oh well time to start again but this time maybe with 1.06C patch!

CM, next time, instead of inviting Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania into the Axis, DoW them and annex. Then do the same to Turkey and eventually Iraq and Persia. This way, you'll have direct access to the Middle Eastern oil fields which will be plenty for your needs and conversion into rubber. FYI, if an ally or puppet is between you and rich resource lands you on, you'll have to use convoys. You must own all the territory between your home capital and the resource lands to get them. Note: this is different than supply lines. You still get supplies to your forces if they're on the far side of an ally or puppet.

Be sure to research desert warfare doctrine.

In a German campaign, linked in above post, I made some key mistakes as Germany.

(1) Ought to have never invaded Egypt, lost a lot of good troops simply to block the British from access to the Mediterranean. I could've used them against the Soviets. Next time, I'll just dig in in the Gaza Strip and improve infra and fortresses there to force a standstill w/ Britain. Hopefully, the Italians could pinch them from the other side. If I give them techs regularly, they could be pretty tough.

(2) Attack the Soviets ASAP, to prevent Stalin's build-up. There is a point where they become just too massive. In a current game, I'm enjoying the playing as the SU very much.

[Agathon]

Agathon, try landing near Scapa Flow, sweeping around the British Isles rather than crossing the English Channel.

I'll try that, but I want to knock out some more of the Royal Navy before I give it a try.

Right now I have masses of IC so I'm trying to modernize my forces before the Russians get at me.