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Let's Play HOI3: The Great Potato War (Completed)

Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
7,269
Welcome to a brand new HOI3 LP!!! Now, instead of having a rivalry with Garfunkel over his LP, but instead I will try to cooperate with my good man. There will be no bad blood between us! There is plenty of room on the Playground for two HOI3 LPs!

hoi3game2011-06-2211-24-09-87.jpg


We will be playing Semper Fi with the 2.04 patch, mainly because word is the mods all fuck over the non-majors (or at least that's the word I hear). After much deliberation, it has been decided that, as a true Codexian, there is only one nation I can choose to play as. Center of the action and gets into the war early.

adolf-hitler.jpg


Wait... two Nazi LPs? Fuck no, I say!

What-Is-Potato-Plant-Pesticide.jpg


FOR POTATO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


hoi3game2011-06-2211-24-48-59.jpg


The situation is tenuous at best. We're smack between two superpowers that want our land. We know that Germany is going to declare war on us in '39, so we'll have three years and change to prepare for it.

Here's a look at the starting situation for Poland.

hoi3game2011-06-2211-25-22-81.jpg


That's all for now! It's called a teaser. Next update we will begin the path of turning the Land of Potato into the Empire of Potato. See you next time!

: x
 

Cassidy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
7,922
Location
Vault City
You should have included a poll on whether to start in 1936, 1938 or 1939.

:decline:

In any case, good luck. I heard playing as Poland in HoI3 is much tougher.

:M
 

Fafnir

Liturgist
Patron
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
874
Location
Sweden
Grab the Codex by the pussy
Destroid said:
Well, this should be short :smug:
The new partisan system from Motherland will be awesome though. Poland might actually be fun to play longer than 3 years tops.
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
7,269
Update 1: Organization

Most of the first update (in fact the first few updates) are going to be of the housekeeping variety. I'll explain a few of the points that may not be clear in the screenshots, and I, and I'm sure others, are willing to answer any questions you have.

First, a look at the front.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-20-13-85.jpg


Now, it's impossible, and in fact won't be necessary, for Poland to guard the front from both Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union should mind their own business until 1941, I hope (assuming I get that far), so Germany is the clear and present danger.

The tale of the tape will be as follows: They have about twice the base manpower (with numerous events that will increase that even higher), three times the base IC, and four times the base leadership. They have far better leaders (with numerous 5 skill commanders such as Rommel), and will have far better technology come the war to boot. Basically, we're up against it. Our one advantage is they are going to have to devote a lot of resources to both the front with us and the front with France. Also, Poland obviously has much potato.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-22-09-28.jpg


We have a deficiency in Rare Materials, so trading with the Soviet Union is a good way to make up for that. We are also short on crude oil, but since our forces will be primarily infantry, we shouldn't be using much fuel. If we are lucky, we may be able to pull off one full armored corps for a bit of an offensive punch by the time war comes, though.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-24-44-48.jpg


Ethiopia lasted all of two months... not a lot of shock there.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-25-07-32.jpg

hoi3game2011-06-2214-26-43-66.jpg

hoi3game2011-06-2214-27-36-26.jpg


We got a few shitty events in pretty short order, but the only real consequence was we lost 2 national unity.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-27-55-75.jpg


A look at our Politics screen. One advantage Poland has from the get-go is they already have pretty good laws enacted, and with spies lowering neutrality internally, you can get the Three Year Draft law on the second day of the game (which is the best peace time draft law... Service By Requirement being the best overall).

hoi3game2011-06-2214-31-30-28.jpg


Also a quick look at our techs. Our focus is going to be mostly on infantry and land doctrine techs, with a few in armor to open up medium tanks, as well as a bit in Industry to give us a bit more IC. The IC difference won't be a huge factor, so we won't use more than one leadership point at a time on it. Poland also can't afford to waste time researching techs ahead, so after the first Infantry techs cleared, we shift to light armor. For land doctrines, we are focusing on the ones that benefit Infantry Organization and Morale, as well as the one that lowers delay time between attacks.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-32-10-56.jpg


For production, right now, and for the foreseeable future it will be three brigade infantry divisions. We'll need quite a few full corps to fully guard the border, and even more to be able to counterattack and go on the offensive. Our manpower is very limited and will likely be the bottleneck that will force us to turn our focus to armor a little later on.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-33-36-54.jpg


After reorganizing the Order of Battle (which seems beyond fucked at the start of each game no matter which country you play as) and placing our forces along the border, another look at the Western border.

hoi3game2011-06-2214-34-05-43.jpg


And a look at our production. As of right now we have exactly enough IC to not be in deficit for supplies, Consumer goods, and the eight divisions we're currently building. Oh, and there's another disadvantage that Poland has to Germany: At the start the infantry practical is pretty low, with a -12% modifier on IC and buildtime. This is pretty different from HOI2, where making serial runs was a pretty smart move. It strikes me, in HOI3, that serial runs are inefficient, because I believe they use whatever the practical was for the first run, and don't benefit from its increase. You're better off manually making parallel runs as each clears for the maximum practical bonus, which can end up saving you a lot of IC. Luckily, with the rate we're going to be churning out infantry, the infantry practical will be pretty high as time nears. After one run of infantry it already increased from that -12% to a positive 3%, and each run will steadily increase that.

Also, especially in peacetime, always build Reserve units, as regulars will cause your consumer goods needs to go through the roof, as well as costing almost twice the IC for no real benefit. Mobilization takes about a month (give or take), so if you know roughly when the war is coming, there is absolutely no downside to building reserves.




Anyway, at least from an LP perspective, the first few months of HOI3, while incredibly crucial to your overall success, are boring for a spectator. So, to send you off with high spirits, I will leave you with some lovely images from Polish culture... so you know why we fight!

potato_23.gif


GeraltRivia21.png


And that's about all I can think of.

Poland_First_To_Fight.jpg
 

Sulimo

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
3,230
Wasteland 2
:salute:

I won with Poland once, fortified my border down from Danzig till the last province of Czechoslovakia, and ground down the Germans until 1942, after which it was a cakewalk to take pretty much all of Germany. I wouldn't build infantry if I were you, your manpower reserves really don't allow it.

It's kinda lame the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact isn't really represented in vanilla, since you won't have to garrison your border with the SU. HPP and ICE both have the SU trying to rape you from behind, making it somewhat more realistic and impossibly hard.

Edit: also, focus mostly on infantry research, so you'll be able to match the german infantry when they stream across the border like the Huns that they are.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
Its the usual "the AI is retarded" as Soviet Union would never pass on seeing Poland border pretty much open to then.
 

Infantryman

Scholar
Joined
Feb 9, 2010
Messages
459
Location
War Saw, Potatoland
Vanilla doesn't simulate Soviet invasion on Poland, because at this time the Potatoland is a member of the Allies, so declaration of war by SU would also automatically trigger conflict with UK and its allies.

The only logical workaround is to kick Poland out of Allies (as they did in DH), or to allow the countries to choose whether to help their allies or not.
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
7,269
I won with Poland once, fortified my border down from Danzig till the last province of Czechoslovakia, and ground down the Germans until 1942, after which it was a cakewalk to take pretty much all of Germany. I wouldn't build infantry if I were you, your manpower reserves really don't allow it.

I plan on significantly slowing down infantry construction at the end of '37, building one or two divisions at a time while building forts in key provinces, and hopefully having one full armored corps by the time the war starts. I should have plenty of extra divisions if I can take Eastern Prussia quickly to reinforce the front with to slow down the German advance. That's the plan as of right now, anyway.

Update 2: Still not a lot going on

hoi3game2011-06-2301-06-06-20.jpg


Time goes by and all we're getting are these random events. Other than churning out divisions, there just isn't a lot going on.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-07-01-32.jpg


Our infantry practical is getting a lot better though, which will both help production and infantry techs.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-09-26-92.jpg


The Spanish Civil War fires in September. I've seen it go until 1938 before it fires, but normally it is sometime during '36. Beyond Germany and a few other countries having a decision with no real effect to anybody, there is nothing to do with that.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-09-54-74.jpg


Another event that puts a small dent in our national unity. Considering we're probably going to be suffering from a lot of bombing from the Luftwaffe, we may want to switch our internal spies from lowering neutrality to raising Unity (in fact we probably should have done that awhile ago).

hoi3game2011-06-2301-12-02-85.jpg


Our Light Tank research is done. We retask most of the leadership to infantry, with one spent on unlocking medium tanks.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-15-04-51.jpg


We have the border with Germany covered with troops, but we'll need a few more troops along East Prussia, and some down with the border of Slovakia.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-21-24-64.jpg


Wonderful.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-22-22-71.jpg


The Spanish Civil War seems to be coming down on the side of the Republicans. In HOI2 it seemed to come down on their side the vast majority of the time. HOI3 it's a bit more 50/50.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-26-37-52.jpg


A look at our manpower. We're already running low. We only make back about 4 a month, so we'll have to stop building all of these infantry shortly.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-26-37-52.jpg


Here is the production. Not a lot going on here, still just a bunch of infantry.

hoi3game2011-06-2301-31-17-41.jpg


And one final look at the front. We have about 2 years until the war starts...

A few general updates. Infantry Production tech has given us a very slight boost to ICs. Our doctrine techs are coming along pretty nicely. I'm focusing on the one that reduces Attack Delay, and the two that give bonuses to Infantry Morale and Organization. Everything else is spent on infantry techs.

Potato_heart_mutation1.jpg
 

Sulimo

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
3,230
Wasteland 2
Be sure to raise your officer count, it's dangerously low at 62%. Stop research for a year and pour everything in officers, until it reaches 140% or something like that. Or you will seriously lose.

But I suppose you knew this, just figured I'd throw it out.

Carry on. :salute:
 

Reject_666_6

Arcane
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
2,465
Location
Transylvania
How come you're not researching agriculture? All that manpower will seriously disappear in two weeks once you start mobilising. You need MOAR. Also officers.

How about some artillery brigades as well? They don't use much manpower and can add to the infantry's infantryness pretty well.
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
7,269
Reject_666_6 said:
How come you're not researching agriculture? All that manpower will seriously disappear in two weeks once you start mobilising. You need MOAR. Also officers.

How about some artillery brigades as well? They don't use much manpower and can add to the infantry's infantryness pretty well.

Well the base increase is 4 a month, so the 5% isn't such a huge bonus... but that is a minor fuck up. I'm going to do an update until July 1 1939 here in a few hours, so the update after that will actually have shit going on.
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
7,269
Update Three: Gearing up for War!!!

This update will take us from '37 to the beginning of World War II. I'll give some updates on internal matters, but we'll also look at how the situation around the world is playing out.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-29-34-63.jpg


Japan joins the Axis during the summer of '37.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-31-52-14.jpg


This will allow us to build armor, but our armor practical is absolutely horrible, adding nearly 50% to IC and production time. With our limited IC, it is not a practical investment... and I feel that even wasting time researching it may end up biting me in the ass.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-36-21-86.jpg


We start focusing on some forts in key provinces... but this may be another place where we misplayed our hand.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-37-57-58.jpg


The mistakes made earlier are becoming more and more evident. We will not have the manpower to fully mobilize our forces.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-39-31-40.jpg


Japan takes the first of the Chinese Warlord nations quickly.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-43-32-09.jpg


And Communist China falls quickly as well.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-44-15-90.jpg


Possibly the worst random event... -20% leadership and a big dissent hit for about a month.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-52-46-65.jpg


A little late... but Germany is beginning to expand.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-55-28-84.jpg


I doubt this will amount to anything, but it may keep the Italians out of the Axis for awhile at least.

hoi3game2011-06-2303-57-58-13.jpg


A look at how crippling one division of armor would be. Half of our available IC.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-00-34-55.jpg


Republican Spain wins the Civil War, so that is a minor victory for the allies.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-02-21-54.jpg


Japan is rolling in the Far East.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-03-09-03.jpg


More fortifications... but it may be too little, too late, I fear.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-06-23-36.jpg


Japan isn't fucking around.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-06-33-97.jpg


A look at China, under Japanese control.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-11-46-26.jpg


The Axis gets stronger, with a convenient buffer state for the Japanese against British India.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-20-43-13.jpg


And another bordering British India, as well as possibly opening up another front for the Russians to deal with.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-21-26-03.jpg


The Germans have retaken the Sudetenland... the War looms nearer.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-24-33-74.jpg


Followed quickly by the annexation of Czechoslovakia. The war is but a matter of time now.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-27-58-36.jpg


So much for delaying the Italians from joining the Axis.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-30-14-22.jpg


We move some troops from the Prussian front to the border with Slovakia, where the Germans are placing a large concentration of troops.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-33-39-83.jpg


Still very short on manpower. I begin mobilizing, waiting for them to demand Danzig.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-35-26-78.jpg


I set a couple of objectives for my allies which they will hopefully grab and relieve some pressure for me. Can I change history, here? Can the allies actually provide meaningful support to the Polish defense?

hoi3game2011-06-2304-35-36-50.jpg


An interesting turn of events here. Perhaps due to my large military, the Germans have not fully defended their border with France. If war is declared soon, they could face quite a problem in the West.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-47-11-33.jpg


I now expect war at any moment.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-49-49-39.jpg


We build one light tank division to help our practical and maybe provide a little bit of a punch against ze Germans. It may have been a waste of resources, but our options for building were limited.

hoi3game2011-06-2304-57-03-72.jpg


We have made it to 1940 without ceasing to exist! Suck it, History!!!!

hoi3game2011-06-2304-58-43-89.jpg








On January 12, 1940, the United Kingdom and the Allied Powers declare war on the increasingly hostile Germans, and by extension, their allies among the Axis Powers. What would follow was destined to be the largest conflict in human history, involving every major nation in the world in an increasingly deadly conflict. Poland would be the first battleground of the new war.







Poland__First_to_Fight%5B1%5D.jpg


potato02.jpg


spud%5B5%5D.jpg
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
I was gonna say, medium tanks are probably a waste for you because they start out worse than light tanks (and more expensive), so if you wanted armour, light tanks would be the way to go. A bit late for that now though.
 

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