Play as · WW2 1939

Germany - January 1, 1939

A combined-arms doctrine years ahead of its rivals. An industrial base smaller than every great power you might have to fight. Hostile alliances forming to your west and east. The clock is running.

Germany's strategic problem is geometry. Solve it through speed, sequencing, and not making the mistake every Germany makes - fighting more enemies at once than you can finish.

Starting position

Czechoslovakia is digested. Poland is the next visible target. Anglo-French guarantees to Poland are in place. The USSR is open to a non-aggression deal - for now. The USA is officially uninterested. Italy is a junior partner. Spain is exhausted from civil war. Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria are options for alignment.

The Wehrmacht is the most modern army in Europe at this moment. That advantage is finite - Soviet industrialization, US rearmament, and French armor modernization will close it within a few years.

What you have

• +Combined-arms doctrine. Panzer formations integrated with mechanized infantry, motorized supply, and Luftwaffe close support. Decisive war regime is your default - until you outrun your logistics.
• +Modernizing Luftwaffe. Tactical aviation is the world standard. Strategic bombing capacity less developed than UK or USA - but not the role you need most.
• +U-boat capacity. Atlantic commerce raiding can hurt the UK badly if you commit. The Battle of the Atlantic is winnable for years.
• +A V-rocket research program. Late-war ballistic missiles. Not war-winning at scale, but the proof-of-concept that other arms haven't caught up to yet.

What you want

• →Sequence enemies one at a time. Poland fast and decisive. Western front next, before USSR is ready. Soviet front only after the west is settled. Skipping any step risks two-front war.
• →Keep the USSR neutral as long as possible. Non-aggression deals, trade arrangements, ideological accommodation. Whatever it takes. A Soviet front with the west still active is the campaign-killer.
• →Strangle Britain by sea. The Atlantic battle is the path to forcing UK terms without invasion. Invasion is much harder than the U-boat campaign - pursue it as backup, not primary.
• →Resource autarky. Romanian oil, Swedish steel, Ukrainian grain. Without these your war machine runs on a clock.

What you fear

• !Two-front war. The historical Germany lost when this happened. The mechanically modeled Germany loses faster. Avoid at every cost.
• !USA mobilization. Once it starts, the industrial gap closes fast. Every turn the US sits out is a turn you can use.
• !Soviet industrialization completion. The USSR catches up technologically by mid-war. The window for decisive action against them closes.
• !Strategic bombing in your homeland. Industrial targets are the bottleneck of your war effort. Sustained Allied bombing degrades your magazines, fuel, and tank production at exactly the wrong time.

Signature challenges