Bodhi - I went thru the in-game tutorials to figure out how things work.. also let the AI run against each other awhile to see how some things work.
The AI will do some pretty stupid things .. like makin destroyers and sendin em out to the British Isles (insta death for 'em ..the brits have pretty decent fleet presence initially)
Biggest problem the combatants had in WW2 is being unable-unwilling to focus their efforts.
If the US brings their fleet to the Atlantic and thoroughly spanks the German Navy *hard* they have no problem putting every boot ashore into France before 1940.
Makes it near impossible for the Germans to get into France.
My basic strategy for Hitler is no allies except Japan ..I take Poland in May and just run up the coast thru Latvia-Lithuania-Estonia
then do an amphib landing in Finland-Sweden. Also declare war on Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
I land 10-15 divisions in England in late 1939..while battle for France is still going on.. I just run over from Amsterdam and dump 'em northeast of London.
I clean out the continent of Europe by end of 1940.. I run over Spain, then Italy ..and finish all the Slovak countries.
I need 1.2 million men to go into Russia. As soon as I have that number I go.
Usually can do so in late 1940 (August or so) .. by summer of 1941 I have Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad ..and Russia surrenders in 1942.
If Hitler had focused entirely on industry buildup in 1936.. then infantry, navy, and interceptors from then on..
135 divisions (3 brigades each) available for 1940, 200+ avail for invasion of Russia end of 1940, 400+ available by 1945 ..boots on the ground do the deed.
3 Bismarck class battlewagons in the water in 1939.
2 Fleet CV's in the water in 1940
..continuing/expanding production lines as war progresses.. so far late 1945 I have 17 fleet CV's in the water and 8 battlewagons along with support ships.
6 fighter wings of 3 squadrons each by 1940, 7 is the total I build.
8 tactical bomber wings of 2 squadrons each.
8 Naval bomber wings of 2 squadrons each.
I start building transport planes in 1939 ..slowly at first, then by 1942 I am up to building 8 squadrons at a time.
Tuff to keep the army supplied in it's blitz thru Russia ..gotta build airfield supply lines and infrastructure to keep em going.
To do an amphib assault .. need to build transport ships, run the infantry to the port they are at, load em up ..take em where you want them to go.
To protect transports I build a fleet around them ..initially it's every boat I can muster ..Donitz can be promoted to handle 30 ships (max allowed for one Admiral)
..it takes awhile to reach that cap but I usually have 10 transports, 3 battlewagons, and alla rest to reach 30 ships by the time I invade England.
Then I start splitting the fleet up when I get CV's in the water. Gotta develope technology to make fast task forces ..takes awhile but eventually you will have 2 CV's runnin amok with light cruisers and destroyers (gotta build engine tech so they will be fast ..etc)
Ya .. I get sucked in
As I said earlier.. I can email you a startup setup for Germany or Russia that works well.
-Frank aka GE