Germany is impossible to play as

[Thravid]

when you invade Belgium, France and UK parked their WHOLE army there! Literally 30 french infantry units in antwerp..... WTH?

[Phoenix VII]

Germany is actually OP. Seriously. Germany starts with 40 Military Factories against France's 6 so as long as you aggressively recruit new troops, you should be able to outnumber France's army substantially. Generally, the French AI has 105 divisions when WW2 starts while the German AI has 160. Also, you get an event with the Soviet Union which makes researching the Panzer IV take alot less time even if you research it 2 years ahead of time so you should be able to start the war with some medium tank divisions that will roflstomp anything the Allies throw at you.

[Exarch_Alpha]

That doesn´t take into account soviets refusing molotov-Ribbentrop. And then, well.

I´m pretty sure an Italy+ Germany+Japan team is stronger than France+UK and commonwealth. But not one with also US and soviets.

[Bad Brad]

That's exactly what you want them to do! Trap them in belgium while you slip your armor through the Ardennes and cut them off with a single Sickle Stroke!

[TheKingOfBabylon]

If that many units are in one place look at frances border with itally its often very weakly defended. I flanked them with one panzer division that way and they surrendered...

[ryan]

I just got the game and conquered France, UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and a few more nations before loosing... (Playing as Germany)

[fat4eyes]

Germany is the 3rd easiest major to play IMO (after USA and Russia). Lots of PP, lots of industry, great generals, and all sorts of tech boosts early in their tree. Just play to your strengths (armor, blitzkrieg, subs) and you'll be fine.

As others have already said, don't fight on the mountains (e.g Balkans), you're just wasting your armor and motorized troops. Armor and motorized are expensive to produce, and you don't want to waste them on mountain attrition.

Conserve your planes too, the UK spams fighters and bombers like crazy. Save your airforce for big pushes (like through Benelux, or the invasion of the UK).

[bonanza king]

Originally posted by Officer Judy Hopps:

Out of all the nations I've played, I found Germany to be the hardest for me.

Comes around to 1939, I'm thinking I'm in a decent position. Panzer III production is in full swing 2 years ahead of time, BF-109s are flying off the assembly lines, have like 20 SS motorized divisions battle hardened. Got 4 Elite Panzer Divisions from fighting in Spain and China. Decided to go for "Plan Z" and rebuild the navy which was coming along nicely.

Everything was going acording to plan, the pathetic nations of Europe were trying to appease the Mighty German Army.... until the Yugoslavians refuse to give in... So I invade them, get half way through the country when my Wargoal against Belgium finished up so I can fly around Maginot early, though France is guarenteeing them, but who cares! I can take on the French easily!.... Then Poland refuses to hand over Danzig, so obviously I have to fight them as well!

So now I'm stuck fighting a 3 front war... The British and French stopped me outside of Paris, meanwhile the Yugos formed a line in the hills that stopped my advanced and are now actually threatning to push back... The Poles retreated to Danzig and I can not break into that area to get them to surrender...

So 2 fronts are at a stalemate draining my manpower and resources, while the 3rd Im actually loosing... meanwhile my Airforce can not maintain Air Supperiority, and my Navy is confined to ports due to constant naval bomber attacks...

Also the USA joined the war in 1939... 0_0

Like some have mentioned. You gotta make sure you dont bite off more than you can chew.
I find Germany to be one of the more playable factions. I usually like to keep either a neutral or fascist poland as a soviet buffer to just focus fighting in the west.

Originally posted by Thravid:

when you invade Belgium, France and UK parked their WHOLE army there! Literally 30 french infantry units in antwerp..... WTH?

You could naval invade france and land at calais. This works for me a lot actually. I avoid having to fight the belgian speedbump and flank the maginot line. France doesn't garrison the coast well at all and the allied navy can't seem to stop it. After landing I ship over an army or 2 and take Paris before the french army can reposition to defend it.

[Micadi]

Germany is easy to play as.
I will use my walkthrough (albeit not on veteran and without historical focuses) as an example:

* late 1936 - hey, I have an idea, lets conquer Poland and maybe Lithuania quickly so I have better looking borders before the actual war starts

Declares war on Poland... Poland joined Allies. You are now at war with UK

*mid 1937 - UK is at 90% of way to capitulation with nearly all my troops in Britain. Soon nothing will be able to stop me

France joined the Allies, you are at war with France. F*** me

*early 1938 - UK and France are defeated, time to end the bloodshed and annex some things diplomatically

Starts anschluss of Austria. They Refuse
UK and France are mine (first puppeted second conquered), what will you do silly Austria?
Declares war.
Austria joined Commitern. You are at war with Soviet Union. F***ing seriously game?!?!

*early 1939 - whole Europe and Russia is mine, either puppeted/conquered or in axis. Before the actual start date of WW2. Allies and Commitern are no more.

*late 1941 - all troops are on US border in Canada (puppet). Starting Fascist coup in Texas and declaring war on US one day later (just as all US troops just started to move around and are disorganized). They didnt survive even 3 months

*early 1948 - whole world is Fascist and in Axis (Damn you Mexicans for suddenly flipping back to Democracy while being still in Axis and making me wait for years before they change back). GG

[billy]

Germany is good to play , though i only play with histrorical AI off dont think much would have turned out different with it on. I took holland and belguim and then france through there , that was fairly quick and easy . Then poland then USSR , think USSR fell in mid 1940 .

Note sure what to do now , guess invade UK , they dont have many troops left and I've bombed there navy a lot and i have complete air dominance.

I focused on producing infantry equipment and fighters the most ( 2 full lines of each ) , with artillery and some light tanks. Then churned out infantry with some arty and tanks/mech and some calvary MP's.

you have a lot of political power with germany so i got a few countries to join the axis .

[beewyka819]

Dude, when I'm Germany, I have at least 100 divisions on the western front by the time I declare war. It's not that hard, just constantly chug out troop.

[EM-10]

Originally posted by Lestrad:

While I havn't had that situation occur, I have had the invasion of france trigger Operation Bagration, and the Normandy Invasion six years too soon. Really hoping someone gets a mod put out quick that fixes this BS "Historical mode". This game is as much a World War II simulation as Dynasty Warriors is a good way to brush up on Chinese history..

You mean Lu Bu _didnt_ convince Tigers to join his side?

[BONE]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Originally posted by GOOD GETTING YOUR DREAMS OUT:

git gud.

No serious, Germany is VERY playable. reality is you need to get better.

[GOT_NO_SKILLZ]

Originally posted by xXROUGEXx:

I think part of the issue really is that units move way to fast across the map. In Hoi3 if you did "The blitz through luxemburg to the coast" like what was historically done you could cut off any divisions that went to the low lands, and destroy them. Now if you attempt to do that same tactic in Hoi4 the Ai immidietly has you blocked without getting to far.

I've also noticed this. In my Germany playthrough the Soviets invaded Hungary and Romania. These two idiots volunteered to join Finland in the Winter War after I made the mistake of letting Finland into the Axis. Since I refused to join the war, the Soviet border was TOTALLY undefended. So I massed my forces for Barbarossa, aiming to drive uncontested across their territory and cut off the huge Soviet army to the south before they overran Romania. Well once I declared war the Soviets used strategic redeployment to shift their forces to my border and I barely advanced 3-5 provinces before my infantry stalled. Strategic redeployment gives the ability to mass combat power (even with terrible organization) faster than high-org, fresh divisions can attrite the defenders in combat. That doesn't seem realistic to me.

[GOT_NO_SKILLZ]

Originally posted by Thravid:

when you invade Belgium, France and UK parked their WHOLE army there! Literally 30 french infantry units in antwerp..... WTH?

This reminds me of a post from ~2 weeks ago:

Noob: "I'm Germany attacking France and I can't make any progress! I've lost 500,000 men already! WTF?!?!?!"
SteamCommunity: "Where are you attacking?"
Noob: "Those 3 provinces in the very south were Germany and France share a border."

...Dude launched a frontal assault on the Maginot Line and couldn't figure out why he couldn't conquer France -_-.

[GenWargrey]

Germany is easy as ♥♥♥♥,someone experience with sowjet union? i find usa hard because you cant do ♥♥♥♥ with army until war