Hearts of Iron

[Torenico]

I've modded the game so that the game would last till year 2000+, I hope it works, game ends at 1948 by default, I'll find out soon.

Goals, actually the main goal is to survive, but I don't know, Barbarossa 2 and taking Moscow?. I don't mind getting my ass kicked by the Soviets, after all I'm playing the 44 scenario to get that feeling of being desperate, the feeling of fighting an already lost war.

[PanzerKnacker]

World domination?
Take positions along Volga and choke yourself in vodka, kaviar and oil?
Peace with the Allies and total annihilation war with the soviets? Or the other way around?
Survive until end of game?


Edit:didn't see the last post.

This is very nice, I enjoy these reports. Keep it up! Wipe them out of Italy, and then reinforce the east. Although that's a bit far fetched. I'd just throw them into the crimson grinder

[Torenico]

It's annihilation war against the Soviets and Allies, since this is a war between factions, you can't make peace untill you destroy, or you are destroyed.

First, I must find a way to defeat 700 Soviet divisions, then we can speak about world domination hehe. If my little change into the game works, this will be my longest game in HoI ever, longer than my 1936 game as the USA in HoI 2 with a mod which I can't remember the name, what a fun game, started invading countries for the lolz and then Japan invaded the US east coast and italy (Captured territory was italian but most of the units were German) landed on the west coast, felt like World in Conflict, never had so much fun, I even nuked my own territory.

[Torenico]

So after this general retreat, I have to reorganize my Heeresgruppe Mitte. Scattered units, divisions fighting under Nord's area, it's chaos.

First, Heeresgruppe Mitte HQ redeployed to Warsaw, a clear sign of defeat. Main Armies, 2. Armee, 9. Armee, 4. Armee, 19. Armee and 3. Panzerarmee HQs redeployed well behind the front, to avoid aerial attacks and being caught in the fighting.

Heeresgruppe Mitte is a 450.000 men-strong force, but it is not enough to reliably fight the Soviets. It is, however, capable of delaying them. It's something like this:

19. Armee is currently holding their positions on the blue area, it's a 68.941 men strong Army, it's mostly made up with Hungarian units but they have repelled several Soviet assaults in the past, they took part in defensive operations to save 9. Armee, 4. Armee and most of the 2. Armee from annihilation.

2. Armee is quite a strong army, consisting of some battle hardened divisions and are currently holding the Yellow area, 126.000 men strong, most of it's units saw heavy fighting such as Weidling's, XXXI. Armeekorps which is deployed north of Brest-Litovsk.

Both 9 and 4. Armee are currenlty in this messy area (Green), 4. Armee is 68.827 men strong while the 9. Armee is 55.215, both units suffered massive losses.

3. Panzerarmee is also big, 127.000 men, some of it's units are fighting along with the 9 and 4 Armies but the bulk are scattered along the front with a reserve in Brest-Litovsk. I must get this thing sorted out, I don't like to see an army scattered around, things must be organized.



As for strategies, I still expect a Soviet attack towards Brest-Litovsk from the north, they will just smash the III. SS-Panzerkorps and the XXXI. Armeekorps, both units are quite exhausted and were involved in heavy fighting for weeks. My idea is to reinforce the 2. Armee with elements coming from the 3. Panzerarmee and start pulling back the divisions that suffered the most. There are divisions with almost 0 organization, others with half of their original strenght. I will slowly start retreating the 4 and 9 Armies towards Brest-Litovsk, attempting to make the front "shorter" so I can concentrate troops in a smaller area.

In the Balkans I've attempted to capture the vital province of Gradiska with the 11. Panzer Division and  other units advanced 34km in some areas, but a series of Allied counterattacks pushed back some of my divisions and the 11. Panzer was fiercely counterattacked by the Australian 1st Armored Division and pushed back. By the Adriatic Sea coast, east of Dubrovnik, British troops coming from Albania also launched an attack on Das Reich SS Panzer Div. and pushed it back, adding more relief to Tirana from the north. IV. Armeekorps consisting of 2 Panzer Divisions (Two Panther brigades), two German infantry divisions and one Romanian infantry division is redeploying to Salonica, Greece, to relieve the 2nd Infantry Division of Vichy France. My plan is not only to relieve this unit but to counterattack and regain lost ground in Greece.

Fuel is also becoming a problem. While there is no "0 Fuel" thing, like my units can move around even if it says "20" fuel in the resources tab, but they have shortages and they wont be receiving fuel for days, they consume their fuel reserve and after it's empty, they suffer a massive movement penalty. When I had to move around tons of tanks to save Heeresgruppe Mitte I suffered a big shortage of fuel, I could have attacked the Soviets more often if it wasn't for this problem.

[Hjaldrgud]

Don't worry, General Torencio, Steiners assault will bring it under control...

[Captain Pyjama Shark]

So.. What's the war goals, general? Hold out 'till a ceasefire?

Defeatist!

[Torenico]

Don't worry, General Torencio, Steiners assault will bring it under control...

And so will Busse and Wenck offensives despite being outnumbered 10-1!, with a ruthless and mighty attack!

I've made some progress in Croatia. I've retaken Gradinska and despite several attacks from the Austrialian 3rd Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division, I managed to hold it. Now the allies concentrated their efforts on Nasice, defended by the 2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division and 98. Infanterie-Division.

The Allies launched an attack on two divisions belonging to the LXII. Armeekorps south of Zagreb, pushing them back 75km and threatening the rearguard of the advancing 11. Panzer Division. After reinforcing this area with reserve units and launching a counterattack, I encircled the British 3rd Infantry Div. and destroyed it. Luftwaffe played a vital role bombing Allied positions and disrupting their movements in the Zagreb Pocket.

7. SS-Gebirgsjager Div. Prinz Eugen and 13. SS-Gebirgsjager Div. Handschar crossed the River Sava, Prinz Eugen captured Sisek on 7 July and stationed itself southeast of Zagreb while the Croatian 373. Infanterie Division seized Virovitica, both units linked up and surrounded 4 Allied divisions into a small pocket east of Zagreb. Handschar Division faced strong opposition from the Mexican 4th Infantry Division, 11. Panzer Division supported Handschar's attack and they crossed the river on 8 July.



In Albania several Allied divisions launched an attack towards Dubrovnik, 130. Panzer Lehr saw heavy fighting but managed to hold their positions. In Greece the IV. Armeekorps relieved the French division in Salonica and engaged Allied forces pushing south towards the open Athens.

[Fuchs]

So.. What's the war goals, general? Hold out 'till a ceasefire?

Defeatist!

..No! I mean we force them to submit! So we can cease our fire! Down with the Bolsheviks! Down with Churchill!

[Erwin]

Started in 1941 Scenario and decided to give it another shot.

I captured Moscow&Leningrad by March but I seem to be stuck at Rostov in the South and Red Army now wreaking havoc around Kursk&Kharkov. I'm having a hard time containing them. In the meantime I pushed in the North and going for Archangelsk.

[Hjaldrgud]

Have you successfully destroyed some (by some, I mean hundreds of thousands soldiers) units by enveloping them? I haven't played Germans in vanilla since Semper Fi, but that did the trick back then, for me at least.

[PanzerKnacker]

it's hard to get enough troops to do it properly

[Erwin]

Yeah and whenever you manage to envelope some of them the AI always finds a weak spot and traps my forces.

[Torenico]

Well, shit, I was having so much fun...

My 1944 game is over, even though I modded my game to end on 1.1.1999, it still ends on 1.1.1948....

By July 1947 I launched an offensive against the Allied troops trapped in Zagreb, it was total success. I moved down south and encircled troops in Serbia, cutting them off from Supply routes coming from Albania. After this victory, Allied forces in Italy began yet another offensive, aiming to take Venice. Battles here were hard fought, and reinforcements arrived just in time. Up in Lithuania, the Soviets opened a gap in my defensive line and pushed trough it, Kaunas was attacked and the battle was bloody, as usual.

 I started looking at the manpower reserves, the few battles in Lithuania alone (For example in Kaunas, a Latvian Volunteer division was down to 50% of it's original strenght in ONE battle) were enough to make me make a decision. Massive offensives in Italy and Greece, ending the Allies once and for all, then sending most of these troops to the Eastern Front for a final, decisive clash with the Soviet Union.

After finishing off the remaining troops in Serbia and stabilizing the Venice front, I launched the Major Offensive in Italy, with Two Army Groups and over 400.000 men. The Offensive went well for the Heeresgruppe C armies, pushing from the west towards the east, aiming to take the fortified city of Firenze, Bologna and Rimini, cutting off the Allied armies in two. Lacking armored support, the Offensive was stalled 75km from it's starting point, taking heavy casualties.

Simultaneously, I attacked the Alllied forces in Albania and pushed down into Greece. I achieved total air superiority and allowed the Luftwaffe to begin bombing Allied forces in Greece, greatly reducing their combat capacity and allowing my forces to take less casualties.

By 25 December, I had smashed trough Allied defenders and it felt like 1940, unstoppable. Game ended shortly after, I aimed to take the Greek capital by the second week of January, the Allies were too weak to prevent this.



A real shame!, it says "You can continue playing" and click on continue but it just stays there, damnit.

I might start yet another game as Germany 1944, this time in a much harder difficulty, or Germany 1936 (NEVER gets old, NEVER), I feel like building up an huge army to invade the USSR like in the old times, or achieve something I was never able to do before, beating the USSR+Invading the UK+Invading USA, in the same game... I want a big game, I could play Finland 1936 now but, I'm only limited to Winter War, Joining Axis, Continuation War and that's pretty much it. Or Japan, but that is very frustrating (The sound of Convoy attacked repeated 100 times in a single HoI3 day breaks my brain, but I love naval warfare)..., Italy could be fun, I need to learn names though, I like to name my units correctly (as much as possible).

[VonMudra]

Why not a 1943 game, or 1941?

[Torenico]

I'm not a fan of these scenarios, 1944 is fantastic because you pretty much start losing, 1943 is okay I guess but 1941 is not what I like, because I have all my armies already deployed and, I like custom armies.

That is why I consider the 1936 Scenario the best, because as Germany you can build your army as you like with plenlty of time, and I have quite a few things in mind.

That said, I started my 1936 Scenario which I hope, will be my ultimate 1936 Scenario of all HoI Series, will make it as long as possible and detailed as possible too, I love details, hell I even rename new Brigades (generic names suck) with semi-historical names. I have tons of experience now, I've learned from past mistakes from previous Germany games, this is where I will put all my knowledge of this game in play.

It's time to conquer the World.