German HOI 3 AAR

Hey guys,

Thought I would start this new AAR for HOI 3, so I started in the year 1936 as Germany with the objective of world domination.

It started well, research and industry building was the priority for the first year, with focuses on infantry, artillery, mechanized units, light and medium bombers and more uboats.

I have somehow by the 1938 to manage to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia as well as alliances with Japan, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania.
The Allies consist of the usual as well as by late 1938 the USA.

The DAnzig event showed up in May 1939 and the battle quickly began with Poland, with the country falling in the historical month, with the same idea as the Germans of ww2. Armoured units pushed up from the south of Poland racing for Warsaw as well as armoured units from the North, both units quickly encircled the capital and vicious battle ensued. The bulk of the Polish army was stationed on their western front, and due to my armoured move that cut the country in half, 75% of his entire army had been cut of and slowly and methodically destoryed. Poland however didn't allow me to annex them instead opting to 'continue the fight'

Seeing the beginning of June 1939, the Russian annexed Estonia and Lativa and as per the pact signed back in 1938 Poland was halved.

Next is the low countries and France.

 

One thing I hate about allies. They get in the way of your war plans. Once, my Italian ally was on my right flank moving down Yugoslavia, but he went and exploited a gap in their lines, and left my right flank completely porous. Yugoslavian troops had a field day in my backyard and I had to momentarily halt my advance. Thank God it was Yugoslavia and not Russia.

 

I have an update now.

It is now August 1939 the war with the low countries and France has been fought and won.

The war with France was actually initiated by the Italians in the south, pouring their troops over the French forts and defenses. Since I didn't want to lose out on any vital French territory I decided the war was a go.

I launched my armored and infantry divisions into the Holland and Belgium, and with the week both had fallen, pushing it the north of the France the initial battle went very well up until I hit a river on my front, and this stopped my advance. Having to bring up another army they quickly pushed through the french defences behind the Maginot line, and using a few armoured divisions raced to meet up with the advancing Italians near the border of switzerland almost cutting off some 50 French divisions.

Meantime the bulk of my armour raced from Dieppe through to Cherbourg and surrounding Paris and pushing further South West meeting almost no resistance, just before the maginot line defenses had been cut of the French surrendered saving me many men trying to take the fortifications and Vichy France was announced.

During the Operation the Graf Spee was lost as well as 5 Uboat Flotilla's.

Now for the invasion of England and Greece. The preparations for this have been under way since 1938.

 

Ok so the Invasion of Greece was commenced with only one army with 5 infantry divisions with support of the entire Bulgarian army, once I realised I was getting nothing out of this war, I pulled that unit out of the line and used them as reserves for the Invasion of England.

December 20th 1939 was the date set to invade the British Isles. My planes had managed to destroy all the destroyers and light cruisers in the British channel as well as 1 Battleship that attempted to make its birth in Dover port. The basic plan was to invade the south west of England with my mobile army of 5 divisions. One would push further south west and take those lands, two other divisions would head straight for plymouth and capture the port there to allow reinforcments to begin pouring in. The last two would head north a very provences then head North East to link up with the Paratroopers that were dropped north of London.

Two Paratrooper Regiments with supporting arty were dropped north of London (Birmingham I believe the town was) to cut supply routes northward, as well as disrupt reinforcements coming south in attempt to crush my landings.

The second Invasion Front was north East of London on the Coast there, with a quick access to an Airfield for my Stuka's to operate closer to the front. This unit comprised of 1 division of Marines, 1 division of motorised infantry and Light tanks, and three infantry divisions. The Marines would push immediately for the airfield in support of the tank division, and then continue to push east to also link up with the paratroopers and cut london off fully. Two infantry divisions would push south and begin to harass London, while the last was merely for filling holes in the line.

As quick as the plan was formed and executed it was an immediate success with all forces linking up with the paratroopers and threatening London.

London was a tough nut to crack needing 1 more tank army with three Tank divisions from France to conquer.

The push northward caused many issues since there is very little room to push through weak spots, so I landed 2 reserve armies comprised of around 8 infantry divisions further up the coast above Wales to attempt to realieve the pressure of the main attack from the south.

Also so far there has been no sign of the RN.

 

I am no fearing with the battle for Britain that it will turn into a stalemate on the small island, there requiring me to continue to launch a different type of Blitzkrieg warfare. Instead of attacking straight at the enemy then encircling the front line, I will having to continuously launch invasions from the sea all up the coast, taking the key cities, ports and airfields and hopefully starve the troops into submission.

The next target while the BoB is happening is Ireland, as they are now part of the Allied forces.

 

The Invasion of England has been successful, on March the 15th 1940, the last British defence of the mainland scarpa flow has been taken and all that remains in a few coastal islands.

Ireland was invaded from the air at all there major cities with paratroopers and supporting infantry divisions. These units actually got bogged at the cities themselves, and it was not until a panzer army was brought up that the cities were won.

Next is the invasion of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and finally Russia.

 

After much deliberation and debate, the High command decided against the Scandinavian approach and instead went to assist with the destruction of the English Army in Nth Africa.

Combining troops on nearby cyprus, the sea trip to the invasion strip was short. My bombers had been combing the area for months now while the build up occured, and removed all but the smallest of vessels, none of any match for the Bismarck.

The landings were to happen on either side of Alexandria, with one army pushing south west and the other pushing south east, South into Africa and a small army East into Israel currently controlled by the English.

 

North Africa is almost completely taken with the exception of a few pockets of militia units nothing worth worrying about. I have also sent two panzer armies south into CEntral East Africa, but the lack of roads and railways are causing serious issues with my supplies, at least I can assume the enemy is having the same problem.

The area around Tel Aviv has been taken and I have an entire army positioned and ready and waiting to invade Iraqi and secure the area south of Russia in preperation for the 3 way invasion of Russia.

Next target is the invasion of Norway and having troops postioned on the border with Russia in the North.

I am even considering moving an entire army over to Japan and invading Russia from the West. Interesting Idea.

 

I have decided on a four front battle against the Soviets. I know the soviets out number me but I feel I can out gun them. So with that the plan is almost set and ready.

The attack will be done in four stages, and from four different directions.

1. The first stage will be a half scaled attack from the south of Russia from the German occupied nation of Iraqi straight into the Caucasus Fields, with the intention of capturing the oil fields and pushing as fair up as Stalingrad. the sole objective here is simply to pull Soviet troops in this direction.

2. This second stage will be a small scale armoured assualt in the North of Russia, from the nation of Norway. It is only a small front but with some assistance from the Kriegsmarine and the transports landing small invasions further down the line I hopefully can push through here. The sole objective, Leningrad. Again with the intention of drawing the SOviet reserves North weakening the Centre line.

3. This will be the third stage after both 1 and 2 are well in the making and soviet forces begin to move. This will be a full scale attack from Poland straight into Russia, with the front being split into 3 sections as historically done. Army Group Nth heading towards leningrad and moscow and linking up with the Norway force, the centre racing towards the centre of Russia hoping to cut supply lines and the factories in the centre off from the front lines. Army Group south to link up with the Troops from Iraqi.

4. This stage I feel will be the most successful and fastest front out of all four. Stage 4 of the campaign, will be an Sea Invasion from the East of Russia, the troops coming from Japan hereself. Due to most of the forces being stationed either on there western front or the new Iraqi front, the East should be realively weak. Because of this lack of troops I am expecting a fast advance and therefore this whole army group will be consistant of mostly armoured, mechanized, motorised and calvary forces, with the infantry simply there to make sure I am not flanked. This requirment will mean I need to strip most of the other fronts of there tanks except for a few divisions that will lead the attacks through the other fronts. I am accepting this loss of tanks because once this stage is set and the troops have landed and begin to take the poorly defended Russia, I think the Russians will strip there lines and race across to meet those troops, weakening even more of there lines.

I expect this entire operation to take no longer than 6 months, but will require perhaps 1-2 years to prepare, both the land forces postioning, the naval transport units produced and Norway still has to be taken, a feat I am going to attempt to copy from History.

World Domination here I come.

 

The invasion of Norway went without a hitch with the country capitulating in just 5 days, although they 'decided to continue the fight'.

The main plan was simple, land an army group of 5 Infantry Divisions on the shore's near Oslo surround the city and capture it. 4 Regiments in 2 divisions landed Nth East of Oslo up in the mountains to put pressure on the small airfield and port there but not fully attacking until the marines had shown up, and also to attempt to cut reinforcements moving down to Oslo, fortunately the enemy at no time even moved a division. Once the Paratroopers were organised Marines began to storm the beaches and surrounding beaches of the port (the name I can't remember but it is the only one in the Sth East of Norway in the game.) with the Paratroopers attacking from inland, the battle as you would expect ended quickly. The last two invasions were launched both on the City of Trondheim and further Nth Narvik, both fell quickly.

The invasion was a complete success with only 400 German soldiers and 1 Destroyer lost in the battle. The Norwegians lost there entire country, army and 3 Destroyers, 2 submarines, and 2 light cruiser in the battle.

1 problem I noticed with my previous plan to invade Russia from Norway is in HOI 3 there is no land connection from Norway to Russia as in HOI 2, so this will either have to be changed to a sea invasion from the port of Narvik in Norway, to the North of Russia near the port of Murmansk, or invade or turn Finland to the Axis side, this is yet to be decided, but either way the plan will still continue.

 

The Next country need for the invasion of Russia was Iraqi. This country was actually more difficult to occupy then Norway mainly due to the supply problems there this may also be a problem further along in time with the invasion of Russia, so the target objective for Russia may have to scaled back and for this front to simply be a side show for the main attack.

Anyway, from the Area around Tel Aviv, 4 Panzer regiments with supporting infantry split into 2 armoured divisions began the attack on Iraqi from the south, with 5 infantry division supported by 1 marine regiment attacked in the Nth.

1 armoured division was to attack directly at Baghdad, and the other to race South East and capture the only sea port that the Iraqi's have, this was good as it also gave me access to the Persian Golf and the Pacific without using allied bases.

The attack on Baghdad went wrong due to supplies and the attacking panzers were required to wait a few days until a infantry division from the north was able to move around and attack the city from the other side, only then did the city fall and so did Iraqi, now I simply need to invade Persia and I will have complete access to the south of Russia as well as English occupied India and finally Asia, but one thing at a time.

 

There was a land connection between Russia and Norway in HOI2? That doesn't seem right to me at all. Hmm...will have to investigate. It looks like your best bet would be a naval invasion supported by paratroops (if you have any) to tie up Russian Forces to allow you to establish a beachead and move on any port possible.

 

I am now going to do a rough estimate of the time line of events(without dates but in numerical fashion) that will happen leading up to the Invasion of Russia.

1. Consolidation the latest victories, reinforcing these areas with the needed troops for the invasion of Russia.

2. The invasion of Persia, needed for Stage 1 of the operation. Originally the plan was to attack from Iraqi, but by invading Persia it will give me more of a front to work with, so the plan has been slightly changed, consolidating and preparing this area.

3. Begin Infrastructure upgrades of all the attacking regions, production of the transport fleet needed for the invasion and support escorts. As well as more infantry and Armoured Divisions.

4. The deployment of 6 armies consisting of 3 being armoured divisions and 2 infantry to Japan for the Invasion from the East, this number most probably will be increased, but at first this is what I am working on. As well as the supporting transports, escorts and aircraft needed. One of the biggest problems here is not the invasion itself, but getting the troops to Japan. To get the troops there the transports will have to travel through Asia, still currently held by the Allies, I think however resistance will be minimal enough for me to dash through, a dummy run is needed though.

5. Strengthing of the main front between Poland and Russia in terms of men and materials.

6. Finally the Invasion itself.

 

I remember it being there originally unless the Russians took the land from Finland without me seeing it.

That was the plan, at the moment I have 4 Paratrooper Regiments stationed in Norway with a whole other division to be completed in a few months, and I don't have any other plan for them yet in the main invasion other, but if I need more then I have 2 years to build them before the invasion begins.

 

I just checked HOI2 myself, and it is right, Finland controls a small section of land between Norway and Russia, it is strange, because as Germany in HOI2 I remember attacking through there before.

 

Can you post a screenshot of the HOI 2 area and the HOI 3 area? It could have been some event-triggered thing. Seems odd that Norway would share a border with Russia. I can't think of where it would be myself..Finland touches Russia as far as I can remember.

 

This is not the best picture as I found it on the web, but for me to get a screen shot of mine, it would lake 20 mins just to get to the main screen, and then another 10 to get in the game. Once in it is fine though

Anyways, although the Finnish player here is adancing into Russia you can still see where the original lines were.





As the game I was playing where I attacked through this area is long gone I have to visual aid for that one, but I remember doing it.

 

A quick google and talking to my Norwegian Friends shows that HOI 2 is right...the area in question is called 'Finnmark'.

http://www.robbiereid.co.uk/images/diary/norwaymap.jpg

Finnmark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thats a pretty major discrepancy in HOI 3...and clearly important one in your plans!

 

It is definately going to be a sea invasion from Narvik to the North Of Russia then.

 

I posted it on the HOI 3 forum and got this map as a response:

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/scandinavia/fin192039.gif

Apparently Norway and USSR were only neighbors post 1944, after the Finland/Russia Continuation war. Finland lost Petsamo as a result, which created the Norway/Russia border.