MasterSmithFandango
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2008
- Messages
- 7,269
Welcome to my second Hearts of Iron 3: Semper Fi Let's Play. The first one ended in ignoble defeat at the hands of the Nazis, and the French are set up to have the same happen to them. This one will be a bit more interactive (but not LARPy like BRO Garfunkel's).
So with out further ado, Let's Play:
As mentioned earlier, we will be selecting the French.
Here is our head of state:
Here is there situation on January 1, 1936:
Along the Rhine we have the Maginot line, which are a series of level 10 forts along our border with Germany. As long as they are manned and supplied, they will be nearly invulnerable to the German advance. We have no fortresses bordering the Low Countries, which is where we are most likely to experience the brunt of the German attack.
In the South, bordering the now Fascist Italy, we have a series of level one Forts in the mountains, which, while not invulnerable, should be pretty tough to crack. As long as this front is kept supplied and manned, this area will likely be a stalemate against the Italians.
In Africa, we have a handful of troops in the port towns. This theatre could very well prove to be important in limiting Italian expansion, so some resources could/should be devoted down here.
And in French Indochina, we have a handful of troops, but not enough to handle an eventual Japanese invasion (assuming they handle Nationalist China and the other warlords). A concerted effort in this theatre will be hard to keep supplied and of limited short term strategic importance, although it could prove to severely weaken the Japanese.
Here is the overview of the other aspects of our nation:
Our base production isn't bad (108), but the laws we have enabled weaken that quite a bit. The best way to handle that will be to have internal spies set to lowering our Neutrality. Our Neutrality is quite high, but with 10 spies lowering it, and Germany being Germany, it will lower pretty quickly. Another problem is our low National Unity. We may also want to set our spies to increasing that after we get our neutrality down to a good level.
We have around 14 leadership, which isn't very good, but it should be enough. We'll probably focus mainly on land techs, specifically infantry and armor, but a small investment in interceptors may be worthwhile to keep the skies relatively clear of German bombers. Of course, we'll want to devote some leadership to improving industry and manpower. An investment in the Navy would be nothing but a colossal waste of resources. Beyond taking some islands from Italy and sending a handful of troops to Africa, our Navy will serve no real purpose. We could try to challenge Italy for dominance of the Mediterranean Sea, but that's a job that's better left to the UK.
We have some decent ministers, but sadly none that increase our leadership pool. We also have a pretty decent manpower pool, so unless we overbuild on infantry that shouldn't be a problem.
Here is what I'm going to need from you, the faithful reader(s):
We know what's coming in '39-40, so the question is how do we prepare?
Put your votes down as A1a, A2, etc.
1) Extend the Maginot to the Channel, making France nearly invulnerable. This would be primarily a defensive war. From that our strategy would be either:
a) Take Italy out of the war, forcing Germany to face another front
b) Turn a strong defense into a strong offense, and devote a large number of forces to attacking Germany while they are busy against Poland.
2) The best defense is a good offense! While Germany is occupied against Poland, we eliminate their Western army and turn their Blitz against them! When they finally turn west, we'll be knocking on the door of Berlin!
3) Ally early with the Low Countries, assisting in their defense, and stop the German advance before it even begins. This would be very resource intensive, and a more passive approach to the above strategies.
Those top three are the choices for military strategy. I'll also consider any other alternatives. Since how those votes go down will also directly affect production strategy, I'll put a couple of options on how to handle those below, but it will be dependent on how the above vote turns out.
1) Focus on industrial production. More industry in the beginning will give us more to use later!
2) Infantry for the Infantry God! Infantry will be the backbone of our defense, so the more we have (within manpower restraints)
3) Armor will make the backbone of our attack against the Nazis, so creating a large number of armored corps will be necessary
4) We must focus on the air force, to keep the skies clear of the Luftwaffe!
I'll leave the vote on for about 24 hours. The production questions are hardly all inclusive, as no matter what we'll have to build some infantry and some armor. The question is how much of our industry we devote, so vote on what the focus should be.
So with out further ado, Let's Play:
As mentioned earlier, we will be selecting the French.
Here is our head of state:
Here is there situation on January 1, 1936:
Along the Rhine we have the Maginot line, which are a series of level 10 forts along our border with Germany. As long as they are manned and supplied, they will be nearly invulnerable to the German advance. We have no fortresses bordering the Low Countries, which is where we are most likely to experience the brunt of the German attack.
In the South, bordering the now Fascist Italy, we have a series of level one Forts in the mountains, which, while not invulnerable, should be pretty tough to crack. As long as this front is kept supplied and manned, this area will likely be a stalemate against the Italians.
In Africa, we have a handful of troops in the port towns. This theatre could very well prove to be important in limiting Italian expansion, so some resources could/should be devoted down here.
And in French Indochina, we have a handful of troops, but not enough to handle an eventual Japanese invasion (assuming they handle Nationalist China and the other warlords). A concerted effort in this theatre will be hard to keep supplied and of limited short term strategic importance, although it could prove to severely weaken the Japanese.
Here is the overview of the other aspects of our nation:
Our base production isn't bad (108), but the laws we have enabled weaken that quite a bit. The best way to handle that will be to have internal spies set to lowering our Neutrality. Our Neutrality is quite high, but with 10 spies lowering it, and Germany being Germany, it will lower pretty quickly. Another problem is our low National Unity. We may also want to set our spies to increasing that after we get our neutrality down to a good level.
We have around 14 leadership, which isn't very good, but it should be enough. We'll probably focus mainly on land techs, specifically infantry and armor, but a small investment in interceptors may be worthwhile to keep the skies relatively clear of German bombers. Of course, we'll want to devote some leadership to improving industry and manpower. An investment in the Navy would be nothing but a colossal waste of resources. Beyond taking some islands from Italy and sending a handful of troops to Africa, our Navy will serve no real purpose. We could try to challenge Italy for dominance of the Mediterranean Sea, but that's a job that's better left to the UK.
We have some decent ministers, but sadly none that increase our leadership pool. We also have a pretty decent manpower pool, so unless we overbuild on infantry that shouldn't be a problem.
Here is what I'm going to need from you, the faithful reader(s):
We know what's coming in '39-40, so the question is how do we prepare?
Put your votes down as A1a, A2, etc.
1) Extend the Maginot to the Channel, making France nearly invulnerable. This would be primarily a defensive war. From that our strategy would be either:
a) Take Italy out of the war, forcing Germany to face another front
b) Turn a strong defense into a strong offense, and devote a large number of forces to attacking Germany while they are busy against Poland.
2) The best defense is a good offense! While Germany is occupied against Poland, we eliminate their Western army and turn their Blitz against them! When they finally turn west, we'll be knocking on the door of Berlin!
3) Ally early with the Low Countries, assisting in their defense, and stop the German advance before it even begins. This would be very resource intensive, and a more passive approach to the above strategies.
Those top three are the choices for military strategy. I'll also consider any other alternatives. Since how those votes go down will also directly affect production strategy, I'll put a couple of options on how to handle those below, but it will be dependent on how the above vote turns out.
1) Focus on industrial production. More industry in the beginning will give us more to use later!
2) Infantry for the Infantry God! Infantry will be the backbone of our defense, so the more we have (within manpower restraints)
3) Armor will make the backbone of our attack against the Nazis, so creating a large number of armored corps will be necessary
4) We must focus on the air force, to keep the skies clear of the Luftwaffe!
I'll leave the vote on for about 24 hours. The production questions are hardly all inclusive, as no matter what we'll have to build some infantry and some armor. The question is how much of our industry we devote, so vote on what the focus should be.