How to gain Manpower as Germany?

[Gunn]

I've got a few hours into the game mostly restarting as I learn new things to better my playthrough, but they're all as Germany. That being said by like 1939 after taking Poland and Czechoslovakia I start to get that low manpower icon/warning, and my manpower is around 600 - 700k.

I know I'm not doing something right because I'll watch tutorials or "Let's Play" videos and in 1939 after taking Poland, basically in the same boat as me, I've seen players with anywhere from 3 million to 11 million manpower at that point!

How does one have several million manpower as Germany in '39? I cannot for the life of me figure this out. I know their are conscription laws but I can't imagine a single one of them would warrant a 5 - 11 million manpower difference. The video I saw of the guy with 11 million MP in '39 as Germany had what looked like 137 divisions when I'm typically right around that same number (more stacks of 24, this guy had one army with 106 divisions).

Any help is appreciated here. Thanks.

[simonmcmenemie83]

have you changed any of the laws with the politial power you earn. you can change the % of population that can enlist in the military.

[Gunn]

Originally posted by simonmcmenemie83:

have you changed any of the laws with the politial power you earn. you can change the % of population that can enlist in the military.

I've looked at them but seems like they all come with a HUGE penalty. Which of these laws do you recommend for a happy medium? Not lose too much but still gain some manpower?

[Kurf]

Originally posted by GunnDawg:

Originally posted by simonmcmenemie83:

have you changed any of the laws with the politial power you earn. you can change the % of population that can enlist in the military.

I've looked at them but seems like they all come with a HUGE penalty. Which of these laws do you recommend for a happy medium? Not lose too much but still gain some manpower?

You'd be surprised how much of a difference 1% recruitable population can make. Typically, nations can mobilize ~5% of the population at the start of a war so when you see modifiers adding 5% recruitable population, you shouldn't underestimate them.

Germany starts with Limited Conscription, so don't even think about touching the Conscription Laws until war time if you want your divisions. You don't have to worry about manpower until the war, which is why "Low Manpower" shouldn't concern you in 1939. However, once war really kicks off (i.e. Around the Maginot) your number one priority is switching to Extended Conscription. As Germany, this doubles the recruitable population and puts you in the millions at the cost of training time.

By the start of the war, you should have enough divisions if not more than you need. This +10% training time will cost you about half a month addition in time to training for your divisions that you're building. Trading a few divisions for a million if not more men is a beneficial sacrifice in war. You should generally avoid All Adults Serve, and resort to Service By Requirement if you're under 50,000 men.

Your number two priority is maintaining casualties. If you lose over 10k men to non-Major invasions (such as wars against Scandinavia, Poland, or Czechoslovakia) you're doing it wrong. Don't use infantry for attacking in unfavorable terrain like Mountains or Rivers. This will increase your casualties two-fold. As Germany, you need to build some armored divisions, they'll be your breakthrough units, not the Infantry. However, Infantry are best for attacking Cities, where you don't want to send tanks.

If you want to see your 2 million manpower pool dip to Low Manpower by 1940, go fight in the Sahara Desert and get an idea of how bad it is to use Infantry in unfavorable terrain.

[Inquisitioner]

Originally posted by GunnDawg:

Originally posted by simonmcmenemie83:

have you changed any of the laws with the politial power you earn. you can change the % of population that can enlist in the military.

I've looked at them but seems like they all come with a HUGE penalty. Which of these laws do you recommend for a happy medium? Not lose too much but still gain some manpower?

That's just the end ones. You should gradually increase it according to need. Through that you should have more than enough divisions by the time the training time penalty kicks in anyway.

[Turtler]

Pretty much what the others said. Extensive Conscription is the one I almsot always go for for the happy medium, since it just takes up time (which should not be that crippling) without harming any of my really essential war capabilities.

Though on another note, you can get a certain (albeit generally miniscule) amount of manpower from territories you annex or occupy rather than conquer. And puppets can give you extra troops. But in general that is secondary to managing the conscription laws and how you spend your manpower and units.

[EthanT]

You can also gain a ton through research. Germany starts in the Mobile Warfare tree. Once you get to the bottom you can pick the Right Tree for even bigger bonuses or the Left Tree for another 4% recruitable pop at no cost to training, production, etc.