Suggestions Welcome

[Kaije]

I picked up HoI 2 a while back, and despite a few flaws I'm finding it to be quite an enjoyable strategy title.

 

Now for a quick glance at where I'm at in the campaign. I'm playing as Romania and it's currently June 15 '43... I've remained independent of the major alliances while focusing on complete conquest of the Balkans resulting in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Bulgaria being annexed - Slovenia as a puppet. I've also taken Istanbul and the west coast of Asia Minor through a quick war and strategic peace treaty with Turkey. Much to my dismay, that bastard Mussolini snatched Albania before I could.

 

Now for some numbers... IC is 90/70 with no quick or easy way to pick up another 10 to open up the final tech team slot. Grrr. I'm well off in the resource department gaining in everything daily, would like more rares with only 20k reserves, but it seems Romanian life makes for a lot of wanting. Manpower, this has been the bane since the beginning. It's 150ish now with 0.34 daily growth, but I'm in dire need of more ground forces. I'm currently fielding about 80 land divisions with 2 HQ's, but over half of those divisions are garrisons (24) and militia (20) Due to the lack of Manpower, the last year and a half was invested into creating something that resembled an Air Force (albeit low tech) - 8 Fighters (Type I), 1 Interceptor (Type II), 4 Tacs (Type III), 4 CAS (Type I), and 1 Nav (Type1). Even if someone can prove me wrong with actual facts, Romanians are not a seafaring people and as such they have no Navy and odds are they never will

 

For Techs, I've been focusing on Industry & Infantry, and working on modernizing Armor, Aircraft, & Doctrines when possible. Keep in mind I only had 2 tech teams availible until '39 or so, and didn't have access to the fourth until late '40 or early '41.

 

As far as diplomacy goes, I suprisingly have friendly relations with all the major powers - SU being the worst at around +20. That's probably a moot point though since my belligerence has been 60 or higher the past 3 years.

 

Now onto business: I've been paranoid the SU would invade me for quite some time since my gov is right wing and normally Romania would be part of the Axis. I've done my best to prepare for this with defenses and AA. I've also been cautious of Germany as well, even though they haven't garrisoned our border...

 

The SU declared war on Germany in Sept '42 and only made minimal progress for the first six months of the war. But now, it appears as if their breaking the resistance and have actually began to occupy eastern Germany, they're now on Berlin's doorstep to be more precise. Both Germany and the SU have been influencing me like crazy as if they were trying to get me to join in... But I'm cautious and wanted to wait and see how this played out. I expected Germany to be able to launch a counter attack into SU, but I don't see this happening now.

 

So what to do?

1.) Declare war on the SU before they can turn against me, slicing northward and completely disrupting their offensive? This could be disasterious if the wehrmacht is unable to regroup and respond, leaving my strike force with their willies out in that could Russkie wind

 

2.) Declare war on the Axis to drive a nail in the coffin, and hope the SU doesn't turn on a poor defenseless me? If I were to do this I believe I could take the Italian mainland without too much trouble...

 

3.) Stay neutral and wait for an Allied reponse*. I can continue to turn my humble autocracy into a near impregnable fortress with excess IC. I'm just having trouble finding that 'Child Conscription' tech...

 

*The allies have their hands full with Japan. Those crazy nips just need to take Singapore to kick the Allies completely out of mainland Asia. Even Australia has lost a province or two to the Japs.

[FullAuto]

Forgive me if any of these are insulting your intelligence:

 

Staggered liquidation of the garrisons and militia to free up more manpower for infantry? Agricultural techs? Hospital techs to reduce wastage when fighting? Buy divisions from other countries? Produce attachments instead of divisions, improving your existing forces (quality over quantity)?

 

I'd do the utmost to get that last tech team slot. A war is worth it. Played with your ministers for max IC? Any chance of building factories?

 

Airpower is a big IC drain, and especially so when reinforcements are taken into account, so I'd focus on the more robust/cheaper types, tacs and ints, for efficiency.

 

Out of your possible choices, I think 2 is probably the best. 1 strikes me as a disaster, perhaps not now, or tomorrow, but certainly in the long run, unless Germany has a truly exceptional game or some other factor spikes the SU's wheels. 3 sounds like it could be a long time coming, if the Japs have to to Oz.

[Kaije]

Staggered liquidation of the garrisons and militia to free up more manpower for infantry?

A few militia may be a possibility, but the garrisons must stay. While it may not seem like I have acquired much territory, those garrisons are stretched thin with staggered deployment and still leaving some provinces with 12-15% partisan activity. Keep in mind Romania begins as a somewhat closed society and shifts into dictatorship through events.

 

Agricultural techs?

I'm current with these at the moment. The next one's start date is '45 and I've enough stuff left to research before I can afford to begin a tech that will incur a penalty and ultimately some wasted time, IMHO.

 

Hospital techs to reduce wastage when fighting?

These are on my very long to do list, but I've been at peace since '41 and have had higher priorites...

 

Buy divisions from other countries?

I think this is only possible with allied nations, and unfortunately my puppet state of Slovenia is exactly churning them out

 

Produce attachments instead of divisions, improving your existing forces (quality over quantity)?

Already done. I have Basic Arty, Basic Sp Arty, Improved Cars, and '43 Engineers on all nonmilitia divisions. Well, some garrisons have MP.

 

I'd do the utmost to get that last tech team slot. A war is worth it.

I agree completely. That's why Italy looks so promising. It's just a shame, they've spent a small fortune to buddy up with me, I kinda feel bad about going to war with them to save them from those rampaging commies

 

Played with your ministers for max IC? Any chance of building factories?

I can pull another 5% by swapping a minister, but I'd lose a 10% bonus to industrial research which I'm not quite done with yet. I'm sure I can scrounge up some IC now for a few factory runs, if they only didn't take a year to build...

 

Airpower is a big IC drain, and especially so when reinforcements are taken into account, so I'd focus on the more robust/cheaper types, tacs and ints, for efficiency.

I didn't realize CAS had such poor range, I just remembered them being cheap to build. It put me in such a pissy mood afterwards that I nearly went back to an older save. Oh well.

 

I get some minister discounts on the fighter and believe them to be more flexible than interceptors, so I went that route. Whether that was a good decision or not, I'll find out soon enough I'm sure.

 

The IC drain isn't much of an issue, it allows me to be productive while using minimal manpower.

 

Out of your possible choices, I think 2 is probably the best.

I definitely would like to take advantage of the opportunity... It's just knowing that my forces will be stretched pretty thin for at least a year. Combine that with my high belligerence and the possibility for an Allied DoW against me...

 

1 strikes me as a disaster, perhaps not now, or tomorrow, but certainly in the long run, unless Germany has a truly exceptional game or some other factor spikes the SU's wheels.

If the SU turns toward me within the next few years, I'm doomed regardless. Not being a member of the Axis, I have no idea what to expect from them once Germany is put down.

 

3 sounds like it could be a long time coming, if the Japs have to to Oz.

Yeah, I was pleasantly suprised to see Japan doing so well.

[FullAuto]

Interesting! Forgot about partisans, good point.

 

I didn't realize CAS had such poor range, I just remembered them being cheap to build. It put me in such a pissy mood afterwards that I nearly went back to an older save. Oh well.

 

They are good if you're fighting through developed areas with plenty of airbases, but ultimately they're vulnerable, not being able to have escorts. Not as good all-rounders as tacs, but they are great at destroying retreating enemy forces.

 

I get some minister discounts on the fighter and believe them to be more flexible than interceptors, so I went that route. Whether that was a good decision or not, I'll find out soon enough I'm sure.

 

Fighters are better, longer range too, but they are more expensive. But if you want to spend IC over manpower, then yes, good point, air forces are a good way to go.

 

How's this for ambitious. Invade west from where Yugoslavia was, cutting off the top of Italy. Hold at La Spezia-Bologna. Continue west or north-west, around Switzerland, and carve off a piece of what used to be France? Or just capture Italy, I suppose!

 

 

 

P.S. Topic is useless without pics, I want to see this lovely Balkan Empire, and anything else interesting (how's things in Asia?).

[Kaije]

Okay, you talked me into it... It's now July 15th, troops have been mobilized, children conscripted, and the invasion just requires a DoW. The SU is rollin' now, which makes the Axis a free-for-all land grab!

 

Your plan on a smaller scale will work nicely. Albania, northern Italy, and the provinces of what was once Austria are the primary objectives. It appears that inital resistance will be minimal, so the entire Italian peninsula is plausible if I can scrounge up enough units to garrison it

 

Infantry and garrisons are in production: Manpower is now 137 and these production runs will utilize a whopping 215 over the course of a year

 

So... it appears '44 - '45 will be bulking up the airforce and provincial defenses again

 

 

About the pics, can I upload them to the forum, or must I do that somewhere else and then link here?

[FullAuto]

I initially envisaged a thrust into the top of Italy, and one going north, east of Switzerland, up to Luxembourg (Lech, Friedrichshafen, Freiburg, Strasbourg), cutting off France from Germany, but then realised if the situation is the usual, there is no Benelux, so you'd have to drive all the way to the coast to cut a chunk off Germany. That's what you get for looking at your own game.

 

Looking at garrisoning Italy...five should do it? Well, five will cover the whole country, I don't know if five will keep partisans down to a respectable level.

 

Any plans on how to annexe Italy? If you take Rome, they will move their capital overseas, no?

 

I use Photobucket for images, upload them there and hotlink to them. Decent amount of space and bandwidth available for free.

[Kaije]

Okay, here's a couple of pics for ya, FA.

 

July 15 '43 Europe:

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/Europe.png

 

Annexing Italy will be highly unlikely in the near future, if I run out of patience I may just press for peace after a mad dash down the peninsula.

 

Finland was a member of the Axis, but chose to be a Soviet puppet over Siberian work camps, slackers!

 

Germany DoWed Republican Spain after the fall of France, but it took several Italian invasions before they commited themselves (I think Spain was just annexed in '42). I was kind of suprised that neither Italy or Germany bothered themselves with taking Gibraltar, could've given Italy a chance to pressure the Brits in N Africa - stupid AI. And I knew Germany was in trouble against the SU when I saw Portugese Infantry in Poland a few weeks back. And that's what's left of the Axis power... Germany, Italy, and Portugal.

 

The US had taken those former spanish colonies from Italy before Japan launched it's offensive. I do really hope that the Allies get involved in Europe again. Real soon. Else there's gonna be a whole lotta Red in Europe!

 

The Pacific:

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/Pacific.png

 

Not much has changed for the Japs in the past month, except maybe losing an Aussie island. The Americans may have also taken a few small islands out in the Pacific, but not really picture worthy.

 

 

I'll try to remember to take a pic of partisan activity next time I give this a go. Should be interesting since I'll also get hit with 5.5% dissent for the DoW...

[FullAuto]

First time I've seen a German Spain and Japanese India for a while! Great images, cheers Kaije.

 

With Japan owning that much land, they're going to be a lot stronger, so it's going to be extra messy in the Pacific, I suppose.

 

You could finish off Turkey, and then do Persia? And if you want to get Italy entirely, investing in a few troop transports won't be that expensive.

[Kaije]

Monthly Progress Report:

 

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/43-7Progress.png

 

 

Whoever planned this offensive should be shot. The invasion of Italy stalled before it even started... Much to my dismay, my little puppet state of Slovenia decided that since they were not 'officially' an ally that they would stay neutral in this conflict. If I only had a nuke... Anywho, it's a good thing I had planned on taking the Austrian provinces.

 

Once that logistical nightmare was sorted, my forces slipped into Austria via Gyor, Hungary, without too much trouble. There were several German divisions retreating out of Vienna, but the Soviets decided to engage them. I wasn't about to let Vienna slip away, so I sent in a corp to join the fray. No sausage for Soviets, only a few tons of heavily armed semi-motorised horse meat! Cavalry may be weak, but they really do have some uses. Next we had some corp size action against the Germans in Munich, and their superior arms & experience was apparent as expected. So my CAS squadron, who happened to be based in Budapest, proved useful afterall! I ended up going a bit further out from Austria, thought I'd use that river (Danube?) as a defensive border.

 

The only other action that took place was my corp of mountaineers destroying the garrison in Tirana (Albania). After which they embarked across the Adriatic for a naval landing in Foggia. Rimini was the planned beachhead, but the delay caused by Slovenia called for a diversionary force further south. This worked out quite well actually, the mountaineers crushed three more garrison divisions and then routed reinforcing infantry coming up from Palermo. Rome will fall very soon

 

Partisan Activity:

 

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/43-7Partisan.png

 

 

Ridiculous. I'm going to have to shift towards open society next year, especially since partisans are disrupting TC as well. Sliders should be movable every six months! I swear it'll be '63 before I get this gov. where I want it to be...

 

Hearts and Minds: Autocrats usurp the Fascists!

 

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/43-7Italy.png

 

 

I thought about honouring Mussolini with a moment of silence, but was too busy killin' Italians. Note our relations though, they know that losing to me is in their best interest!

 

 

First time I've seen a German Spain and Japanese India for a while! Great images, cheers Kaije.

 

With Japan owning that much land, they're going to be a lot stronger, so it's going to be extra messy in the Pacific, I suppose.

 

Speaking of Spain, I've yet to see Nationalist Spain win the Civil War since I switched to the 1.3b patch. I know HoI isn't a WW2 sim, but I would think the Nationalist should win more often than not which is kind of disappointing...

 

And from my experience, and having read through your French AAR, it seems that Japan fares much much better if it puppets Nat. China rather than trying to control it outright. Which does make sense, given the system.

 

 

You could finish off Turkey, and then do Persia?

 

I'm thinking about looting some Nazi treasure in the Alps next. The Swiss have more value in those four provinces than both Turkey and Persia considering the amount of territory. But the Swiss also look to be a much harder nut to crack, so we'll see.

 

I also originally sought peace with Turkey to avoid opening up a second front with the SU, maybe I'm just being overly cautious or paranoid? Due to the 'Vienna Incident' (I presume), my relations with SU dropped about 40 points to -20. The DoW on Germany shot my belligerence up from 58 to 84, at the time of those screenshots it was up to 91. Romania is now the third most belligerent nation in the world, behind Japan's 100 and the SU's 92...

 

Speaking of Turkey and belligerence, they could actually start a war with me right now and really make a mess of things (requires 89 belligerence for them to DoW, bastards). Although I crippled them militarily during our brief war, the cheating AI looks as if it rebounded quite nicely with the whopping 10 IC I left for them

 

 

And if you want to get Italy entirely, investing in a few troop transports won't be that expensive.

 

Okay, obviously I lied a wee bit about my navy I've got 3 TP, 1 DD (Type1), 40 transports, and 20 escorts. I'm just not bold enough to actually call this a 'navy'. So yes, I can ship some units to Spain, but I'd like to know what's left floating out in the Med first. When it comes to TP, I swear my boys can taunt every enemy fleet in the water!

[FullAuto]

Speaking of Spain, I've yet to see Nationalist Spain win the Civil War since I switched to the 1.3b patch. I know HoI isn't a WW2 sim, but I would think the Nationalist should win more often than not which is kind of disappointing...

 

It's a very close run thing, although the Nationalists in my games tend to lose because I join the Republicans.

 

And from my experience, and having read through your French AAR, it seems that Japan fares much much better if it puppets Nat. China rather than trying to control it outright. Which does make sense, given the system.

 

It's probably the best decision all round. They don't get the IC, or manpower, but they get the resources after a delay, and a constant flow of units, and they don't have to bother policing China, which is a bit of a pain. NatChina has the capability to pour out infantry.

 

You going to bother with Sicily and Sardinia? I know a lot of Africa is empty, probably not worth the time or effort.

[Kaije]

Yes for Sicily, no for Corsica. And I really don't want anything to do with Africa. At all. Tripoli having VP may pose to be a problem though. If I recall, my lack of intelligence guesses the Italians still have 70+ divisions, the majority of which will most likely be down there playing in the sand with the Brits.

[FullAuto]

They'll have a job feeding that lot on the IC from their African provinces, never mind producing new units, consumer goods, etc. Here's to a quick peace.

[Kaije]

Yes for Sicily, no for Corsica.

 

Ahem, I meant Sardinia. Really.

 

 

Anyway, just finished up another month. With the exception of Sardinia & the colonies, Italy has been conquered. Oh, and Rhodes, I keep forgetting to go ahead and just snatch that away too. Fifth and final tech team is now up and running and daily manpower growth is now 0.42!

 

There's a fair amount of VP in Italy, but for some silly reason it hasn't helped my 'warscore' much. It's around 45%, so a worthwhile peace agreement seems to be out of reach...

 

So there's a decision to be made again, and I'd like to know what you think.

 

1.) Go all out and make the neccessary naval landings for annexation?

- This nets me a bit more than I was originally after, but will stretch my ground forces pretty thin with antipartisan duties.

 

2.) Be content with what I have now and just wait for the SU or Allies to mop up the few remaining VP provinces?

- A safe option, but could take ages...

 

3.) Should I puppet the 'Social Republic of Italy'?

- I've been giving this a bit of consideration lately. It will cost me most of the IC that was gained from the war, but would give a puppet that would match me in IC. Although I'd lost the tech team slot I just opened, the potential to be fed blue prints from these guys is enticing.

[FullAuto]

How big is the SRI, again? If it doesn't take up the whole of Italy, you could then sell off any spare, useless provinces to it, removing their partisan problem from your responsibility.

 

However, assuming it takes up all of Italy, it does solve the partisan problem (IIRC partisans are about twice as bad in territory that has been conquered, as opposed to annexed), you'll get some resources out of it eventually (hopefully), but losing that tech team is a bit of a kick in the bollocks.

 

If you can run annexed Italy yourself, without too much bother, I'd do it. By all means go abroad and conquer the rest. I'd then either turn the African territories to puppets for whatever small advantage you can get, or totally liberate them, and leave them to sink (e.g. liberate as puppet, then release puppet, then ban from alliance, so you don't even have to think about them again). I can't think of any part of it that's worth going to the length of keeping it annexed as your own and policing it.

[Kaije]

Thanks for your thoughts, FA. I went the puppet route to reduce partisan activity, belligerence, blah blah blah. Anywho...

 

Mussolini Lives!

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/Resource1.png

Now I wonder where all of their resources are goin'?

 

Oh, here they are! I guess they inherited the old stock piles in Rome (Milan is the new capital).

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/Resource2.png

 

Giving Mussolini and pals a second chance was also well received by the international community as our belligerence dropped by 24 points. So now we don't have to worry about a suprise attack from the Turks or Swiss

 

 

You've got Red on you!

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/43-10Europe.png

 

Soviets in France, Romania occupied Rhodes, and the USA now has a presence in the Med. Oh, I also decreed that all my puppet states will forever more be colored Bulgarian Blue

 

So what's happened in the Pacific over the past couple of months?

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/43-10Pacific.png

 

The USA took a couple more Jap islands along with East Timor from Portugal. That is all. The Allies are the defenders of freedom and democracy? Pfft.

 

I suppose I could look to see if there are any ships being sunk out there though...

[FullAuto]

Any chance of grabbing Vichy France or Spain?

[Kaije]

Funny you should ask, I'd just given Vichy a quick looksee. Defintely doable, but probably not until spring since winter's comin'. The Swiss had also withdrew their troops from our border, so I think they want me to free them first

[Sunflash]

Any chance of grabbing Vichy France or Spain?

 

 

If I recall, the last time /you/ went for Vichy France, didn't you end up tangling forever with the SU?

[FullAuto]

That's not how it happened at all. I was going for Indochina, which was owned by Vichy France, and they refused, so I declared war on them.

 

Germany, guaranteeing the independence of VF, declared war on me.

 

Then, in an unrelated matter, the SU declared war on me.

 

Ahh, good times.

[Kaije]

The face of Europe changes once again!

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/43-10Europe-1.png

 

I chuckled when Hitler was assinated on the 21st, but this caught me by complete suprise. Decisions, decisions...

 

Obviously, the Axis now just consist of Italy and Portugal - a combined IC of 17. I doubt they'll be holding out much longer.

 

Apperently, I forgot to get a screen of what Europe looks like now, oh well. Of those countries liberated, only DDR (Germany) and Poland were kept as puppets. It's open season on the others! Austria is confined to only two small provinces, so they're definitely gone. The Czech Rep. looks to be a tasty choice, but that reopens a huge front with the SU, so I'll have to take some time to consider whether that's viable in the long run.

 

Iberia has a bunch of pockets that are currently occupied by Portugal, which didn't default to Spain and are now just considered provinces of the SU. So that's not worthwhile until the AI gets that sorted...

 

I was also in the middle of staging the invasion of Switzerland to prep for Vichy, so now what do you fellas think?

 

 

Romania is obliged to their European brethren to liberate them from the burdens of self-governance, helping thy neighbor, and all that other nonsensical leftist propaganda. Down with the Stalinist regimes, and down with democracy! Three cheers for King Carol II! Hip-hip, hooray!

[FullAuto]

The SU didn't even keep them as allies, part of the Comintern?

[Kaije]

Nope, nor do they have military access. I'm guessing that Hitler's assassination was an event that triggered the surrender of Germany to the SU. Even though the SU gave up or lost those countries, they now officially own those French, Belgium, and Netherland provinces that Germany once did... There's still al ot of Red in Europe

[FullAuto]

Let's have a look then! Europe must be a nice hodgepodge of puppets, Commie provinces, and liberated countries.

 

Never seen Hitler assassinated before, actually.

[Kaije]

Request denied! Just kidding

 

1 / 1 / 1944:

https://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy123/Kaije3/HoI2/44-1Europe.png

 

I've already annexed the two provinces that made up 'New' Austria. Anything else is on hold until I get my dissent down a bit more, which is fine by me since it's winter. Somehow the UK is occuping Soviet Seville in Spain even though they are not at war. What else, oh yeah, the Soviets took Bellares in the Med from Italy.

 

Again, nothing has changed in the Pacific. Lots of activity goin' out there though according to the Sunken Ship list - mostly Allied TP & DD.

 

And yes, all the countries that the Soviets released are 'Stalinist'. They all hate me too.

 

Notice my IC jump? My Austrian and German provinces. I made a tweak before I started the campaign so that half IC is gotten through annexation instead of the normal 0.2. Just in case you've been wondering where the hell it's all been coming from

 

I'm not so sure about going after Vichy now either, I noticed they have a few VP provinces way down in W. Africa. Still doable by all means, just overly annoying & time consuming. Am I just be picky or lazy now?

 

A few days after I started back up this last time, I read a "USA had free Western Europe" event in the history log, but nothing seems to have come from it. I dunno if it was caused by the Soviets, or if it had something to do with Vichy still being around. Ever see that before?

[FullAuto]

I've had that event before, but never spotted what it did. In that game, I was the UK, and I bloody liberated western Europe with my armies. If I had known...

 

That's an interesting map of Europe. Spain looks ill. Nationalist, plus a rash of Portugal extending into southern France?

 

Italy certainly hasn't got much left, anything else not visible apart from Ethiopia? They'll be KO'd soon.

 

With VF having VP provinces in Africa, unless you can amphib assault to them, it'll probably be a long campaign, with the low average Infrastructure. Probably worth it though, even ignoring their African holdings they're a nice little conquest.