Germany Strategy Guide

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Overview

Germany is one of the most played nations in HoI2. Using AAR production as an indication of popularity, Germany is #1 with hundreds of AARs on the Paradox boards. USA is in 2nd place, and the USSR in 3rd place, neither with more than one hundred. The reason for this is probably that Germany is a nation with great potential that was foiled historically and people enjoy ahistorical success. Success with Germany for veteran players is fairly easy, even on very hard difficulty. For beginning players, Germany can be a challenging nation.

Germany is fairly heavily event driven. With technology, production, economy and politics set up properly, the game can run more or less hands free for the first 3 years. Events will benefit Germany immensely, so wait for them to happen, largely in 1938 and 1939. Events will also lead Germany into war with the Allies, on August 31, 1939. By that date, Germany should be fully prepared for war. Note that even veteran players of HOI2, for the most part, abide by historical events at least until war with Poland.

Technology

Germany has the best research teams in the game which allows Germany to be considerably far ahead of all her rivals in research. For example, assuming Germany ignores Tank Destroyers and Anti-Tank Artillery (considered worthless units in game), by May, 1937, it is possible for Germany to have researched every 1936 and 1937 technology. By January 1, 1939, Germany is capable of having researched every 1938 technology as well, with the only exception being aircraft carriers, which are not commonly used as Germany. Advanced players may take different routes, such as tech rushing key technologies. Since Germany's teams are so strong, researching technologies 1 year in advance is comparatively easy. The only point of weakness in German research is in the Navy.

Industrial Research I.G. Farben is the best manufacturing tech team in the game. Use them for all your manufacturing research except Production Planning, which only requires management so use Erich Von Manstein (level 9 and has management) while I.G. Farben researches Production Control. Every industrial field should be researched as Germany with the exception of Radar.

Three tech-teams should be put on the following Industrial Research at start:

• Basic Machine Tools
• Agrichemistry
• Basic Computing Machine

Infantry & Armor Infantry and Supply are the most important research topics here. Mountaineers are helpful in winter fighting, and marines are helpful for Sea Lion. Paratroopers are generally not worth it. Light and Medium Tank research is important for Germany. Static Anti-Air could also be important if Germany doesn't plan on invading England.

Naval & Naval Doctrine Germany does not require a Navy to defeat the Soviet Union, which is the most important objective. A Navy is useful, however, for invading England and even the USA. Germany's Naval tech teams are its weakest area, in addition to its naval doctrines, which are not conductive to a surface fleet. A typical German navy will focus exclusively on submarines for convoy raiding. A player that seeks to make Germany into a Naval Superpower would abandon the Sealane Interdiction doctrine, and likely go for Fleet-in-Being instead.

Aircraft & Air Doctrine Germany's air research teams are good enough that it is possible to keep up to the latest technological level with five of the eight aircraft types, in addition to nearly up to date research on all air doctrine technologies for a player that devotes a serious effort to it. For basics, however, Germany needs to only focus on Interceptors, Close Air Support, and Tactical Bombers to be highly successful.

Diplomacy

Alliances

Germany will be able to enlist several nations into the Axis throughout the course of the game. Through events, Germany can get Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria into the Axis. Finland, Vichy France, Japan and Italy can manually be asked to join the Axis beginning in 1940 with relatively high degrees of success. Note: bringing Japan into the war will automatically bring USA into it as well. Germany can also manage to convince some nations to join the Axis before the start of war (August 31, 1939), without using coups. While the list below seems fairly large, Germany will only be able to focus on a few nations in a game due to the costs involved in influencing nations. Generally, the most strategically important allies from the below list are Nationalist Spain and Turkey.

Reasonable chance (above 10% at 200 relations): Nationalist Spain (during Spanish Civil War) Portugal Argentina Turkey (before 11/1938) Yugoslavia Japan Greece Afghanistan

Low chance (below 10% at 200 relations): Persia Venezuela Peru Guatemala Siam

Sliders

Germany's starting sliders are below average. Fortunately, Germany will receive events that shift Germany fully to Hawk Lobby and Interventionism by 1939. Thus, adjusting those sliders is not necessary. Therefore, Germany's first slider moves should be towards Central Planning: Germany is unable to move to free market due to its Authoritarianism. This shift requires 4 moves (1936, 1937, 1938 & 1939) in order to attain the valuable 25% IC bonus. Once this is achieved, in 1940, Germany should begin the move to Standing Army in order to get the experience and organization bonuses. This can be accomplished by January, 1942.

Ministers

Germany's starting ministers have fairly good traits , but the setup can be improved. A few obvious changes should be made before occupation of the Rhineland: Minster of Security: Gurtner; and Armaments Minister: Schacht (10% IC bonus). Also Head of Intelligence to Oskar von Hindenburg is a good idea if Germany is planning on influencing countries.

In 1937, switching the Foreign Minister to Ribbentrop is a good idea if Germany plans on influencing countries.

In 1938 Germany might want to switch the Chief of Staff to Erich Hoepner (5% Armour and artillery research and artillery construction bonuses) until the war starts.

In 1939, Germany should switch to Minister of Security: Daluege in order to benefit from +15% foreign IC use. When prompted for Schacht's resignation by event, refuse due to his excellent 10% IC bonus. Chief of Staff Ludwig Beck is a decent Chief of Staff (Land Unit speed +10%), but not an obvious or necessary early pick. Germany also already has quick land forces and switching to Fritz Bayerlein (+20% organization regain) is probably the better choice here. In Armageddon, Germany should also switch to Head of Intelligence: Hans Oster in order to benefit from his 5% IC bonus.

In 1941, switching to a Guns and Butter Chief of Army, like von Blomberg, will improve the supply and TC situation.

For Naval Minister, the best pick depends on the naval policy:

• Decisive Naval Battle is best for conventional Surface Action Groups and Cruizerg fleets, but hurts carriers, available at start.
• Open Seas is best for convoy defense, but makes subs more vulnerable, available at start.
• Indirect Approach makes subs and BCs hit harder, but makes transports and destroyers more expensive, available from 1939.
• Base Control makes marines, transports and destroyers cheaper, but also makes cruisers more expensive and hurts the offensive power of BBs and BCs, available from 1940.
• Power Projection is not available for Germany.

For Air Force, Army Aviation and Air Superiority are both good choices, but the NAV construction penalty with Air Superiority makes Army Aviation a better pick. Both are available at start. Access to a Carpet Bombing minister is gained in 1939 - which may be useful if a long strategic bombing campaign against UK is planned. However this requires research in relevant aircrafts and doctrines. Vertical Envenlopment and Naval Aviation ministers are gained in 1944 and 1945.

See also a complete list of German Ministers .

Intelligence

Germany can make decent use of spies. Stealing blueprints will be only marginally helpful, since Germany is usually far ahead of all its adversaries in research. The best use of spies for Germany is simply to identify troops levels in enemy nations, and to avoid having spies within Germany. Japan, the UK, and the USA are all reasonable targets for blueprint stealing -- any other nations are sure to be far behind Germany in their research.

Economy

Germany has a very strong economy that can rival the USA in time.

Trading

Germany has a general need for rares, oil, and metal, thus trading should secure those resources, and preferably build large stockpiles. To some extent, Germany can trade excess energy for supplies, which helps redirect IC elsewhere. Germany's strongest trading partners:

• Soviet Union: trade energy, supplies, and cash for metal and rare materials
• Romania: Will trade supplies and oil for energy.
• Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Switzerland: Will trade supplies for energy
• Brazil: get some rare materials in exchange for energy and/or some supplies.
• Venezuela: offers a lot precious oil in exchange for supplies.
• Nationalist China will trade a small amount of oil for supplies, while Japan may trade metals and rares for oil.

Industrial Production

The majority of Germany's IC capacity should go into factory building. Upgrades should be ignored until 1939, since Germany will advance several technologies over the course of the first few years, and will thus benefit from the leap-frog effect. At a minimum, Germany can create a parallel run of 12 factories, with at least 2 serial runs (e.g. 24 new factories by December, 1937). Advanced players sometimes perform 3 serial runs of factories, but this requires a very rapid buildup and organization of your armed forces in 1939, which can be challenging for new players.

Military

Army

The majority of the German Army (Wehrmacht) should consist of infantry. Militia can also be helpful if used properly, since Germany has a need for defensive divisions to hold front lines (especially against the Soviet Union). An efficient Infantry/Militia mix for defensive lines is a 9 division army of 4 militia and 5 infantry. Ideally, around 75% of the German Army should consist of infantry/militia before the onset of Barbarossa, with the remaining 25% being tanks and motorized infantry. Building too many tanks is a common mistake for new players, due to high fuel/supply costs and TC load. Unless, of course, you are playing very historical and seek to emulate the failures of Germany! As a general rule, Germany may have oil shortages (exacerbated with a heavy emphasis on vehicles), and will definitely have TC problems as the invasion of the Soviet Union progresses. Additional Reading

Navy

The German Navy (Kriegsmarine) has two practical/realistic options:

• Limited Navy: This is the historical route of building U-boats en-mass (the 1938 submarine is a key component). Submarines can be used (in DD) for very successful convoy raiding on England. Doing this will simply hurt England's military overseas (Africa and India). In some sense, this is not a very important strategic goal for Germany, even though convoy raiding can be very successful (see Blue Emu's "Are Submarines Worthless" thread). In ARMA submarines are more powerful, and when serving in large wolf packs (30 sub stacks), they can seriously damage nearly any opposing fleet.
• Surface Fleet: Germany can abandon the Sealane Interdiction doctrine favored by submarines, and go for the Fleet-in-Being doctrine. On this route, Germany can build Battleships (SHBB & BB) and use destroyers as screens. This requires considerable time and investment, but when combined with light carriers, Germany will be a formidable Naval power.

Air Force

The German Air Force (Luftwaffe) has a large variety of options. Generally, an emphasis on TAC and CAS bombers is the most effective use of firepower against land forces. These will help the German Army significantly eliminate enemy divisions in mass, effectively negating the manpower advantage held by adversaries such as the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Germany can be successful with large numbers of INT in order to defend against frequent Allied bombing attacks. Since German strategy is contingent on fast conquest of enemy land, STR bombers are not particularly useful. They are also more expensive to build, unless the Chief of Air Force is switched. Later in the game, adding FTR is recommended, since the short range and the upgrade path of INT will hurt during World conquest campaigns.

Events

These events do more than what is specified below, but this is just a summary of the major effects. All events have triggers that will normally trigger unless Germany does something erratic, like starting the war ahead of schedule. Since these events are so helpful to Germany, most players play historically through events.

Re-occupation of the Rhineland:

At the very start of the scenario, you need to move at least one ground unit to Cologne. This will trigger an event called "Re-Occuptation of the Rhineland" which will give:

• +1 Hawk Lobby

If you dont trigger this event, you will recieve "Great War Manifestation" events that give you +3 dissent until you move a unit into Cologne. So dont wait! You have a unit nearby when the scenario starts, just march in there.

Anschluss of Austria:

March 1938: Assuming you make the historical choice and the AI accepts:

• Annex Austria
• +1 Authoritarianism
• +1 Hawk Lobby (occurs when Austria accepts, not in original event)

Treaty of Munich:

September 29th, 1938: Assuming you make the historical choice and the AI accepts:

• Annex Sudetenland
• +1 Hawk Lobby
• +3 Interventionism
• +1 Hawk Lobby (occurs when Czech accepts, not in original event)

The End of Czechoslovakia:

March 14th, 1939: Assuming you make the historical choice and the AI accepts:

• Annex Czechoslovakia
• Create puppet Slovakia OR give territory to Hungary and they join Axis
• +1 Interventionism
• +1 Hawk Lobby (occurs when Czech accepts, not in original event)

Claiming Memel:

March 23rd, 1939: Assuming you make the historical choice and the AI accepts:

• Lithuania cedes Memel province
• +1 Interventionism

Total Domestic Policy Shift Assuming Germany makes all the historical choices and the AI always accepts:

• +1 Authoritarianism
• +5 Interventionism
• +5 Hawk Lobby

This is sufficient to totally max out the Hawk Lobby and Interventionism Sliders

War

Since Germany is the most event driven nation of the game, most players (noob and veteran alike) conduct war on the basis of events. Since Germany is a major power, however, early war is a possibility, including early annexations . Generally, however, early war is viewed as gamey and too easy for Germany.

Condor Legion: Spanish Civil War

On 18 July 1936, the Spanish Civil War (SCW) breaks out. Nationalist Spain will likely loose without German intervention. While the intervention by event helps, Nationalist Spain will typically require direct intervention of the German Army, which means war with Republican Spain. A friendly Spain serves two strategic goals for Germany:

• Access to Gibraltar, which allows Germany to help seize control of the Mediterranean Sea for Italy .
• A soft underbelly to France, making the invasion of France easier.

Historically, Nationalist Spain was neutral in the war and German intervention was limited. Involving Germany in the SCW is by no means necessary, and is generally only used by players seeking total dominance. Also it changes the French AI to a more aggressive one and thus ensures an early DOW from France. (France becomes more interventionist when it goes with "Send Material and Volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.) When France DOWs early, the Soviet Union often follows. This can lead to a weird game where Poland and Czechoslovakia want to join the Axis.

Fall Grün: Czechoslovakia

Generally, Czechoslovakia can be annexed and made into a puppet entirely through events, as happened historically. On rare occasion, however, Czechoslovakia will refuse German annexation plans, and Germany will be forced to choose to let well enough alone or fight. The Czech army is not a concern due to its very limited size, but its forts in the Sudetenland are very powerful owing to a level 10 size, and hilly terrain. Ostrava, Brno, and Bratislava all do not have forts and border Germany. Thus, this underbelly makes victory fairly swift and relatively easy because the Sudentenland does not have any victory points.

Fall Weiß: Poland

On 1 September 1939, the war with Poland and the Allies begins by event. Germany will need enough troops (around 6 divisions each) in the three provinces bordering France to protect her Western front. Defeating Poland is possible within two weeks. The HQ Units in Action strategy guide provides an excellent guide in the effective use of HQ units, combined with armor and motorized infantry, in order to quickly annex Poland.

Fall Gelb: France

After Poland is annexed, Germany's next significant target is France. In order to get to France, an invasion of the low countries is necessary. Strictly speaking, only war with Belgium is necessary. An invasion of the Netherlands provides Germany IC and large supply stockpiles after the capture of their capital. While neither nation can be "annexed" by taking their European holdings, events fire that ensure Germany receives their European land as "national" provinces. Luxembourg can be annexed before declaring war on the other two.

The invasion of the Low Countries and ultimately France can begin as soon as forces arrive from the defeat of Poland; e.g. sometime in October, 1939. Historically, Germany waited until May, 1940, when weather conditions were more favorable. This can be a problem for inexperienced players attacking too early, and make for some good, early lessons for what not to do when fighting the Soviet Union! Veteran HOI2 players are able to defeat France in less than 2 weeks, primarily through the use of around 5 - 10 tank divisions.

The primary intent of a successful Blitzkrieg is a spearhead attack that cripples the enemy. This means a direct spearhead to Paris. It is possible for the invasion route to go through the forests of France (Liege -> Reims -> Compiegne to Paris), however tanks do quite poorly in the winter in the forest. A more tank friendly route is Ghent -> Lille -> Amiens -> Paris. Once Paris is captured, German forces can branch out in all directions to make a dash for land. When France looses enough territories, it wil surrender.

The event asking for the creation of Vichy France can occur if:

• Paris is not under France's control.
• France lost 25% of its national provinces.
• Germany is at war with France.
• Germany is not at war with Soviet.
• The year is before 1942.
• France is not a puppet of Germany.
• Vichy is not a puppet of Germany.

The event has 25% chance of triggering every 3 days. If France loses at least 40% of its national provinces, the event will automatically trigger. Note that the AI France has 3% chance of rejecting the creation of Vichy. If this happens, Germany is forced to occupy the entire French territory. Accepting the creation of Vichy if the best move for Germany, since it provides Western France as national provinces and drastically lowers dissent, while also providing a reasonably powerful ally.

Weserübung: Denmark and Norway

This is completely optional.

The advantage of capturing Denmark is rendering Baltic Sea unreachable by UK’s (and later USA’s) navy as well as giving you a launching pad to the American continent (provided you do not let Denmark surrenders event to trigger, see below). However, the benefit from Norway is much more subtle. You only gain a low amount of resource and a not very feasible route to the USSR. The best reason why you want to invade Norway is probably because it is part of operation Fall Weserübung. The additional ports might also be useful if you decide to go for starving Britain with submarine warfare.

A very easy way to defeat Denmark is to capture the province Kolding. There is 99% chance that Denmark will ask for cease fire and then a few days later Denmark is annexed “peacefully” by Germany. Unfortunately if you take this path, you will lose Greenland and Iceland to USA. See the method on how to prevent it in tricks section.

Revisiting Norway, a simple and low-risk means of capturing it is by first taking Sweden. This may be accomplished with relative ease by landings just north and South of Stockholm supplemented by an attack from the Odense or Copenhagen. With Sweden in hand, simply walk into Oslo and Narvik from the adjacent Swedish provinces. Alternatively, capture Oslo and Narvik with paratroopers, then annex Norway immediately.

[ ]{#Directive_25:_Yugoslavia,_and_Operation_Marita:_Greece} Directive 25: Yugoslavia, and Operation Marita: Greece

This is completely optional, if you do not wish to invade them, skip right to USSR section.

Securing Yugoslavia and Greece is useful since it makes your allies stronger and gives you access to the Mediterranean Sea. After the annexation of Yugoslavia, you will receive an event that allows you to create Croatia. Creating it will remove some TC burden as well as gaining more manpower and three divisions, making it a good option.

Greece may provide a little harder challenge. It is relatively easy to conquer all of the VPs except the last VP in Crete. The best way to capture it is probably by sending paratroopers on airborne assault. Amphibious assault may prove to be difficult if you or Italy has not neutralized UK’s navy.

Operation Barbarossa: Taming the Bear

• See the article Germany Strategy- Taming the Bear

The Bitter Peace

Conditions that must be satisfied to trigger bitter peace:

• Germany controls Paris.
• Germany is not at war with Italy and Japan.
• Do not sign the Tripartite pact with Japan if you intend to attack the USSR without them. Just sign it with Italy.
• Soviet does not control these provinces:
  • Leningrad (one of the northern provinces, very close to Finland)
  • Moscow
  • Stalingrad
  • Baku (southern province, next to Persia)
  • Sverdlovsk (in Trans-Siberia railway, quite far away)

If you fulfill those conditions, there is 5% chance every week that Stalin may sue for peace. When the event triggers, there is 90% chance USSR will surrender and Germany will obtain a large amount of provinces. Unfortunately if Soviet refuses, the war goes on and you may need to annex USSR to claim victory. The refusal message is: Soviet Union went with Fight to the bitter end! in Sue for peace with the Germans

There are two Bitter Peace chains, one with Japan in the Axis and one without.

• Without the Tripartite pact being signed by Japan and without Japan in the Axis, # Sue for peace with the Germans, event 2624 SOV starts the event chain which is completed by the Germans accepting it: event 2024 GER # Stalin sues for Peace (Japan is not Axis).
• Providing Japan is in the Axis (and at war with Soviet), Sverdlovsk is not required. But Soviet must lose Vladivostok (next to Japan's Korea). Event 2645 SOV which triggers event 2046 GER
• There is a third and somewhat unusual Bitter Peace if you are not at war with the Allies (UK, France and USA), you only need to conquer 25% of the Soviet national provinces (note that Eastern Poland provinces are not Soviet's national provinces).

The Bitter Peace in Doomsday

The ideas are generally the same, but there are some significant differences in Doomsday:

1) The Tripartite Pact is now irrelevant. Offer it to both Japan and Italy since there are no Bitter Peace problems.

2) If Japan is Axis or fighting the Soviet Union, the 5th Russian province can be either Sverdlovsk or Vladivostok. The other 4 needed Russian provinces remain Baku, Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, and either Germany or Vichy France has to own Paris.

3) The AI has to accept the Bitter Peace, there's now a 100% chance of the AI accepting the Bitter Peace once it fires.

4) The % chance for the event to fire has been increased to random = 35 meaning that it should fire in 3 or 4 weeks, but there is no guarantee that it will fire, just a much increased chance that it will fire. Also the time interval between checks has been changed from every 7 days to every 10 days.

5) Other conditions such as Paris not being controlled by France are still the same. Either Germany or Vichy must control Paris.

6) When the Bitter Peace fires, you get 150 provinces at only 2% base partisan levels with a dissent reduction of 50%.

puppet states

If enough provinces in the vicinity of Sverdlovsk can be captured, you might be able to create the puppet state of Transural Republic before the Bitter Peace fires. In like manner you can create some puppet states in the southern region of central Asia near Persia . If you still have these states when the Bitter Peace fires, they will remain in the Axis. If you later declare war on Persia it may annex some of the central Asian puppets, but when you then annex Persia you get the whole thing!

Gibraltar

There are two ways to reach Mediterranean Sea, from Gibraltar and Suez. Having these two provinces will mean the whole sea is in your control. The problem with capturing Gibraltar is that it is not possible to conduct amphibious assault there. You may try using airborne invasion, invite Spain into your alliance, ask military access to Spain (almost impossible) or invade Spain (best for practical reasons).

During the Soviet war you should try to work on Spain and getting them into your alliance. If they do join then take control of Spanish army and capture Gibraltar with them. Failing that, you need to declare war on Spain in order to obtain Gibraltar.

Alternatively, intercede on Nationalist Spain's behalf during their civil war. Do this by first guaranteeing their independence, then declaring war on Republican Spain (who has a province next to Gibraltar). This will make Nationalist Spain want to join the Axis. Now, you can either just help them win the war, or, if you're a greedy one like me, use the Nationalist Spain fleet to transport your armies (use Send Expeditionary Force to allow them to board) to the southern end of Spain and from there conquer Republican Spain for Germany.

Gibraltar is frequently unguarded, so you can alternatively capture it with paratroopers from Bordeaux, saving you the intervention in Spain.

Reaching Africa

After the fall of Gibraltar, the most important British territory in Africa is Suez. Controlling this will mean controlling Mediterranean Sea. There are a number of feasible ways to reach Suez:

• Annex Turkey or Persia and then Iraq (slow because of the poor infrastructure of these regions)
• Annex Turkey or Greece to open more ports (you can launch amphibious landings on Alexandria from Athens)
• If you have a strong navy, put him under Grand Admiral Raeder and make amphibious landing in Africa

If you manage to land in Africa with sufficient force, you can chase them out of the continent for good.

Operation Seelöwe: Great Britain

This can be done before or after gaining complete control of North Africa or even just after the creation of Vichy France. To invade UK successfully you need either a large surface navy (with two or more carriers) or a navy full of submarines. Other units that will prove useful are marines, fighters/interceptors, naval bomber and tactical bomber.

Southern and Eastern provinces of British island are the natural choices for amphibious landing. The best province depends on the province's garrison as well as its adjacent provinces' troops. If the province is lightly defended but an adjacent province has a very large army, you should think twice since that large army may obliterate your landing troops. To see the number of troops in provinces that do not have coast line, use fighters on air superiority over the areas where those provinces at.

The landing party should consist of three marine divisions. Sending more than three divisions will reduce the effectiveness of the whole invasion. Make sure to put the tactical bomber on interdiction and fighters on air superiority to get a beachhead. Since the specific province that is going to be bombed is decided by AI, you may need to follow where your bomber goes. It is not very nice but it works. Success in doing it will spell the doom of the British island.

Another effective way to gain a beachhead is to move your invasion forces next to Cardiff, land paratroopers there, and sail your forces to the now peaceful port. Why? Because Cardiff has no beach to land on, the AI does not defend it, so you can easily capture it with just 1 paratrooper. If landed at nightfall, you will have till dawn to move your transports into the port. No amphibious assaults needed! Another good province for an airborne assault is Norwich, from where you can easily strike at the heart of England.

It may be a good idea if you combine operation Sealion with invasion in Ireland and Iceland (if you did not try to keep it). Iceland will serve as a good launch pad for further invasion on Greenland and America.

Made in India

With British island gone, African possessions ransacked, only India left for UK. The best attack route is from Persia. You can create a puppet Pakistan if you capture enough provinces in western India, and from there you can annex Nepal and Bhutan , though the infrastructure (Himalayas) may be challenging. There is an event 13 that can lead to UK's surrender. The conditions are:

• Paris is in German hand or Germany is not at war with France
• London is captured by Germany
• UK lost at least 75% IC
• UK lost at least 75% VPs
• Germany is not at war with Soviet
• Germany is not at war with USA

UK has 50% chance to accept it. If it does, UK will surrender a number of provinces to Germany, Italy, Canada and USA as well as liberating Lebanon, Egypt, India and Jordan. Chances are if you are able to trigger the event, you can completely annex UK very easily. Because of this reason and the fact that the benefit of accepting the peace is very small, it is a good idea to strive for total annexation of UK.

USA

It is very difficult to land directly in US coasts. An easier route is from Canada. Capture Iceland, Greenland and then proceed to Canada. If you manage to stockpile troops in Canada and invade USA's mainland, you will see that its defence is very weak. The problem with invading the North American continent via Canada is Canada's poor infrastructure. An alternative strategy that doesn't slow your forces down is to capture Newfoundland and from there parachute into Boston. Use Boston as a beachhead for landing your invasion force (which should be in the region of 100 and above divisions). Strike fast at New York and Washington - New England is the USA's industrial heartland. After an intense initial battle, the rest should be a walkover.

There is an event that allows German Player to demand USA's surrender. The conditions of USA surrender to Germany are:

• USA lost at least 75% IC
• USA lost at least 75% VPs
• Germany is not at war with Soviet
• Germany is not at war with UK

There is 50% chance that AI USA will accept the offer. If it does, Germany will receive three provinces and there will be a large change in USA’s government. Else you can always spend a few more months to annex USA.

[ ]{#What’s_next?} What's next?

Conquer the world! If you need more time, use the no time limit mod in utilities section.

Miscellaneous

Advantages

High Quality Tech Teams

• I.G. Farben is the best manufacturing research tech team in the game.
• Konrad Zuse is one of the best cryptographic research tech teams in the game, ensuring further dominance in research.
• Top Tier tech teams for all other areas except Naval Doctrines.

Strong Stable Industrial Base

• Scattered industrial areas difficult to effectively bomb strategically even from England.
• Pre-War industry in top tier allowing long build up.
• Easy conquests of IC rich areas (Essentially All of Continental Europe).

Excellent Starting Land Doctrines

• Only one Land Doctrine to research between 1936 and 1939 to have best land doctrine in the world available at the time.

Good Consumer Goods Income

• Even producing the minimum consumer goods available, peacetime revenue is sufficient to support extensive espionage.

Excellent Leaders

• Start with large numbers of 3-5 skill generals of various rank.
• Top tier air generals (not better than England, but damn good).
• Top tier admirals (again, not better than England, but good).
• Including Rommel, Manstein, Guderian etc

Good Starting Units

• Larger starting army than any European power except USSR.
• Large starting airforce

Optimal Domestic Sliders for Warfare by 1939

• Lots of free event-driven movements towards Hawk Lobby & Interventionism.
• Player can use their manual slider movements as they wish without being beholden to Hawk Lobby or Interventionism.
• Free DOWs available relatively quickly allows conquest of numerous minor nations without dissent.

Flexiblity to choose from a wide range of Force Compositions

• Flexible starting forces & solid industry enable the player to build whatever army/navy/airforce compositions they want.

Good Historical Events

• No huge dissent events.
• No events force-switching or killing your good cabinet members.
• Free annexations via event
• Free declarations of war via event, like Danzig or war

Disadvantages

Weak Allies

• Poor quality expeditionary divisions from allies.
• Poor quality tech teams for allies.
• Few in number with low IC prevents good blueprint trading from occuring.

Enemies with far-flung possessions that are not easily annexed

• UK possesses tiny islands all over the world with victory point values
• USSR has enormous territorial depth. Germany must reach Pacific to annex.
• USA seperated from Germany by huge ocean and strong navy with enormous IC power.

Relatively Poor Starting Naval Forces

• Without substantial investment, no possibility of victory vs major rivals.

Limited access to Naval Doctrines and mediocre naval doctrine tech teams

• Kriegsmarinewerft is a good naval unit tech team, but Raeder is your only really good naval doctrine tech team.
• Only access to a few carrier enhancing doctrines useful in the late game naval war vs USA.

Must stand alone vs enemies with enormous manpower reserves

• Even with immediate research of manpower boosting techs, very difficult to match Soviets or USA in divisions.
• Poor planning can cause you to exhaust your manpower pool and find yourself unable to reinforce your units, much less build more.

Poor Raw Materials production pre-war

• Peacetime trading strategy must be focused on acquiring rare materials , usually at the price of supplies (i.e. purchased with IC).
• After expanding throughout Europe, less of a problem. Especially after extensive stockpiling of resources during peacetime.

Mediocre Metal production

• Can be mitigated through numerous energy-for-metal trades with minor nations (Sweden makes a 1-for-1 offer every couple months).

Located in the center of Europe

• Although this makes it attacking easier, it also means Germany is surrounded by enemies.
• Multi-front situation can be managed if Operation Sealion is successful before 1941.

Gamey Tactics

Germany has a variety of gamey tactics possible.

Germanic Ireland: Totally Optional

When the game starts, build a whole bunch of transports and create about 2 Tank divisions, 3 Militias, and about 2 infantry. (Ireland is only given one infantry division so you can easily bomb rush them). quickly board up your troops and head toward Ireland. This will create you a small navel base to attack the british mainland. It will help you attack Brest and having a 2 sided french attack.

The Unholy Alliance

If you press F12 and then key in and enter event 2015 you get the "Unholy Alliance" option with the Soviet Union. Choosing this could backfire if Japan hasn't had the Nomahan Incident yet. If Japan then chooses "This defeat must be avenged" you'll find yourself fighting Japan!

Germany multiplayer strategy

Prolog

Have you ever tried to play with Germany and for some reason lost in multiplayer game? It will change now. The main point is, that you have to build a very strong and speedy army. You can't only focus on infantry. Of course you need them, too, but what you really need (especially against Soviet Union) are motorized and armored units. If you follow my instructions, you will be very strong opponent in the future.

Blitzkrieg

At the beginning build factories. Only factories. When the war breaks out, you don't have much army but enough to invade Poland. Then, start to build 6 motorized units and 3 armored units, and airforces and some infantry. When you attack France in 1940, there is just no way you could lose, because your army is so tough. French infantry just can't do much against them. You should attack the Soviet Union in 1941. Just keep pumping more armors and mechanized/motorized units. And when the battle begins, use blitzkrieg. Use all your airforce to destroy the enemy's poor infantry, and move forward with your units. You'll see that this strategy is very simple and effective.

[ ]{#Year_1939_–40_Invading_Poland_and_France} Year 1939 –40 Invading Poland and France

Invading Poland should be easy thing to do, altough your army isn’t so great yet. Remember to leave some garrisons against France. It is always good to remember necessary defence. But the main point against Poland is your airforce. Bomb enemy units down and then you won’t lose so much manpower either. When Poland has been annexed you should immediately start to move your units against France, but don’t attack yet. Just wait. But during this ‘phony war’ you should start to build very tough army. First of all, start to pump 3 tanks and 6 motorized infantry + headquarters and some infantry (and CAS!!). With this strategy you will see that France will surrender very soon. If player who plays with United Kingdom transports all his/her allies there, they can’t fight against your tanks. This is so obvious, because tanks have so good toughness and with self propelled brigades they are almost impossible to destroy. BUT!! You have to be careful that you don’t use your tanks and motorized units wrong. Don’t try to attack through mountains or mud or you will ruin everything. With this strategy weather is very important. So when you attack to France (after you have invaded Denmark [don’t attack to Norway]) just invade Netherlands and Belgium and push forward to Reims. Just bomb enemy’s separated units and try to force him/her to move his/her units to Reims. The you have to be speedy. Attack with 8 CAS at night and 8 in morning. Then, concentrate 11 tanks+ HQ + 15 motorized + 20 infantry to Reims, and use some good panzer general. Then, you’ll see, you can’t lose. Then push forward to Paris, and try to destroy as many Britons you can.

[ ]{#Year_1941_–_Operation_Barbarossa} Year 1941 – Operation Barbarossa

COMING SOON