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[Narushima]

There are two belligerents here: Germany and Italy. Two friendly countries are attacked: Albania and Lithuania.
All these countries have coastlines. I say we build a powerful navy. We must be able to land on the enemies' or our allies' soils.

Also, where are our colonial troops?

[NRDL]

The navy shall be the arm of Democracy!  Ending tyrants overseas. 

[USEC_OFFICER]

I'd rather go with EuchreJack's idea. A strong navy is completely useless if we don't have the troops to repel the German onslaught.

There are two belligerents here: Germany and Italy. Two friendly countries are attacked: Albania and Lithuania.

Italy isn't really a belligerent here. Albania was a protectorate of Italy to begin with, so its invasion was pretty much just dick waving by Mussolini to show that Italy was a significant player on the world stage, and definitively wasn't getting upstaged by Germany (hint: that was sarcasm). The Italian army is completely unprepared for WWII, the Italian navy is only slightly better and the Italian airforce is too small to be much of a threat. Unless the AI for the Italians is amazing or suicidal, we shouldn't have to worry about them. Well, unless the Germans break through our lines, in which case we'd have bigger problems than a couple of sorry-looking Italian divisions.

[EuchreJack]

Historically, the German Navy was completely and utterly dominated by the British Navy, hence their needing to resort to submarines.  We don't need a navy: We have Britain, which is all navy.

Just so our shipyards aren't sitting idle, I suggest building an aircraft carrier to provide air cover/bombing missions in Northern Germany.

Are infantry really any good in this game? 

Although I've never played this game, everything I've read about it in other LPs says that infantry are great basic units.  Besides, we can't build anything other than infantry right now.

I must say, I totally approve. Can we add AAA attachment to them? Motorized Infantry with light/medium tank and AAA seems the best we can field right now.

Great idea!  I totally forgot about the AAA units.  We do have awesome heavy tanks, but they are probably too slow for a quick reserve unit.  I would still suggest building some heavy tanks for our front lines.  I'd suggest focusing most of our production on the light/medium tanks to act as a reserve.

Yeah, let's produce more motorized infantry, as a reserve.  Best idea I've heard so far. 

More praise like that and I might have to actually buy this game.  I've been drooling over the Fallout mod for this game.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Infantry are awesome, I took Russia, Italy, and Germany with only 10 divisons of infantry with no support of any type.

[EuchreJack]

Ok, I bought the game, but most of my time has been spent with the Fallout mod.  From what I've gathered, the strict unit limits from the commanders means that quality is preferable to quantity.  A single offensive can reasonably only have 36 units, so attachments make sense in the long run.

As for attachments, our artillery does not slow down our regular infantry, but halves the speed of our motorized units.  Ergo, they're great for regular infantry but lowsy for motorized.

And is it just me, or are the starting armored cars better than the starting light tanks as attachments, in general?  Granted, the armored car doesn't reduce the softness score as much as the light tank, but in all other ways the stat boost is superior for the armored car.

It also appears that the Char B medium tank is equal or even superior in every capability to the Char D heavy tank as a motorized infantry attachment, and the medium tank doesn't slow our motorized infantry unlike the heavy.  So I'd go entirely with medium tank brigades attached to the motorized units.

Plus, medium tanks have the advantage of more opportunities to upgrade, unlike the armored cars.

I also booted up the 1940 scenario, in which France had a couple tank divisions.  Their stats are jaw dropping awesome, and I'm glad I pushed for them in this playthrough.

For our next technology, we need escort fighters!  While our bombers are lousy, they won't survive to deliver their pitiful payloads without escorts.

[Svarte Troner]

^ You seem to understand more about this game after owning it for a few hours while I still don't understand after a few months...

Yeah, I was kinda hoping heavy tanks would just be awesome Nazi eating machines, without really looking into them much. And I've pretty much been throwing all the research into artillery/tanks and infantry/land doctrine shit. Planes will be next on the agenda.

[EuchreJack]

Yeah, I was kinda hoping heavy tanks would just be awesome Nazi eating machines

I haven't seen the stats of heavy tank divisions versus medium tank divisions, but I do know that at the divisional level heavy tanks are quite awesome, they're just no good as motorized division attachments.  So you're on the right track.

[Hyo]

As EuchreJack said.

You don't really want Mots because they're nothing but a drain on resources - they're too soft to use for spearheads, while too costly (not to mention only 1 brigade) to act as your main force. They're an awkward middle position that can't do things properly.

I'd say drop the Mots for now and go straight for infantry, perhaps with artillery and heavy tanks, for puerly defensive purposes. While I prefer an artillery/engineer combination (because artillery ends up dragging down speed, while engineers negate this) your plan is to just hold on.

I say go for infantry and fighter / close air support. The Brits are the navy, and they provide good strategic bombing cover, so you just need to focus on battles itself. And planes are often godly in destroying enemy divisions, because well, good luck trying to encircle the Germans. ;P

[EuchreJack]

I have to confess, I was wrong about heavy tanks: There are no heavy tank divisions, as far as I can tell.

But medium armored divisions are still awesome.

On the bright side, try opening up the 1940 scenario, and you'll likely see that you are better prepared for the Germans now than in the standard 1940 start.  But don't get too confident, as Germany is likely also stronger than the standard scenario.  Still, I think the gap is definitely shortening, and we've got forts in the north to boot.

About motorized infantry:

I don't see them a completely useless, as long as I use them for what they are: weaker infantry that are faster.  To this end, I've found them useful for supporting attacks by standard infantry that have already begun.  For example: I launch an attack with standard infantry and a regiment losses almost all organization in the fighting.  So I tell that regiment to stop advancing, and send a motorized infantry to attack.  Because the motorized infantry is twice as fast (generally) as regular infantry, the motorized will arrive in the target province around the same time as the main force, keeping them at full strength and higher organization for the inevitable counterattack.

However, I've had the most luck with this tactic in the Fallout mod, in which most divisions have far less organization than the standard Darkest Hour game, and most provinces have very little infrastructure.  In the standard Darkest Hour, I imagine that starting organization is high enough to keep the advancing forces on track.

Motorized infantry can also be useful when you really need another unit in a province immediately.  Being twice as fast has benefits at times, especially when you start losing divisions from the front lines.  But I agree that generally, their cost would be better spend on standard infantry.  A small number of motorized infantry will suffice for all these uses.

[Svarte Troner]

I've been having trouble with my laptop lately (which is where the save of this game is) and I need to do some maintenance on it, so don't think this is dead. Hell, we haven't even gotten started yet.

[Svarte Troner]

I lost the update I had written up but it's now March 17th, 1939, we have escort fighters researched, we're building a couple more medium tank/artillery infantry divisions, and a heavy tank/anti-air infantry division, also some fighter wings. Now the question is whether to build tactical or strategic bombers now that we have escort fighters. Italy annexed Albania. That's basically all that's happened in the past 2 months.

Spoiler: Production screen (click to show/hide)

Also, the German stacks on the the border are scaring me. Should I take the troops on the Belgian border and move them there just so I can feel better? Since the Germans probably won't attack Benelux right away.

Spoiler: C'est d'la merde effrayant! (click to show/hide)

[Hyo]

No.

It's just the AI stacking their divisions in corps less than three as you are doing; that's just a false bluff and not a representation of their true strength. If anything else, you don't nearly have enough troops on the Belgian border - put 3 divisions each on the Maginot line and perhaps another for backup in Nancy then move all else to the Benelux border.

The AI rarely ever attacks the fortifications head on anyhow.

[Sheb]

I must say that "Since the Germans probably won't attack Benelux right away." sound like famous last words.

Yup, for all intent the Benelux border should be considered like an extension of the German border.

[Narushima]

I repeat: where are our colonial troops?
And tactical bombers for now. We're not going to be bombing cities any time soon.
And I still believe a navy would be very useful. Yes, the Brits have a powerful one, but it's not ours to command, so we can't rely on it.