How to win the German Civil War?

[ANÚωÙBIS-6VI6]

It's been a while since I played HOI4, and with the upcoming Gotterdamerung DLC the prospect of playing a resurgent Kaiserreich with Wunderwaffe sounds fun. So I am trying to get back into the swing of things.

However...

The German Civil War is becoming a task of tedium with an endless slog and loss of life, before I get routed, split up, and destroyed piecemeal. Everyone says it is easy, but I can't tell whether that is trolling, or stuff has changed which has upset the balance. And btw, I am playing on civilian difficulty.

To start. I have followed other peoples advice. Convert military factories to civilian in the east, and vice versa in the west. I disband all units prior to the start, and train units without deploying them before the war. Then when the war starts, I drop my units and deploy them accordingly.

I create three front lines side by side and give separate orders to attack. I don't bother with anything Navy, cause it seems pointless. And my Luftwaffe is a mess I don't understand, like, I attach all my air forces across my groups, yet I am always being dominated in the air war. Yet somehow the German way to run the air war differs to say the British, selecting areas of operation and detailing mission on the map than assigning to ground support. I cannot out produce, and cause all of my Civy-Facts are military, and cannot establish trade.

The ground war goes well at first and I usually am able to split the Reich. Yet at some point the momentum ceases and a single counter attack them breaks through, despite my efforts, they regain territory too fast to contain. Thus leaving forces encircled and annihilated. I drop units that are not fully trained or even equipped at times to bolster the front, yet this never seems enough. And my generals almost always fo in the red for attacking. I alter the attack speed between cautious to aggressive accordingly, and stop when I need to. I have used the planning speed, force attack, etc, but the dividends are slow, and I gain command points too slowly.

While I have won the Civil War once or twice, I can never see why, I feel I just do the same thing trying to be observant and see the difference, but I sometimes win, or mostly don't. Can someone please help and educate. There is a lot more to take in than what I am probably utilising, and I do struggle and feel overwhelmed trying to keep up with it all.

[Immortalis]

Originally posted by ANÚωÙBIS-6VI6:

To start. I have followed other peoples advice. Convert military factories to civilian in the east, and vice versa in the west. I disband all units prior to the start, and train units without deploying them before the war. Then when the war starts, I drop my units and deploy them accordingly.

Complete waste of time, it's useful only in a war of attrition and that's not what you want since every soldier that is killed, on either side, is another soldier you won't have in the future.
The objective is end the war as fast as possible, ideally before the enemy can deploy surplus units, not drag it out.

Additionally, the units you have in training are divided on civil war start, therefore you give the enemy more troops to work with, not something you want.

Originally posted by ANÚωÙBIS-6VI6:

I create three front lines side by side and give separate orders to attack. I don't bother with anything Navy, cause it seems pointless. And my Luftwaffe is a mess I don't understand, like, I attach all my air forces across my groups, yet I am always being dominated in the air war. Yet somehow the German way to run the air war differs to say the British, selecting areas of operation and detailing mission on the map than assigning to ground support. I cannot out produce, and cause all of my Civy-Facts are military, and cannot establish trade.

Fine to not care about the navy.
Put the units you get at the start of the civil war under a field marshal, and run a field marshal front all the way, to avoid having gaps. Do not give orders to attack, concentrate on a small area at a time, in order to minimise casualties.
Airpower is extremely important, just as above, put all your planes in the area you're conducting your offensive, ignore the rest.


If you want to cheese it a bit, making it rather easy:
- do not take a focus until you have about 200 pp
- justify on Poland, justify on Czechoslovakia, cancel the justification on Poland and justify again on Czechoslovakia (this way you the two are in synch, completing at the same time, and give you enough time to have the French pull out of their guarantee)
- build up your army and air force as needed to win in the East (be aware the Romania will be in the war as well)
- Only once you've taken all those nations, start the process to get to the civil war. The Nazis will retain East Germany but you'll keep control of the new lands you've conquered, forcing them to split their forces and creating gaps in their frontline you can take advantage of.


If you don't want to cheese it, there is no magic formula except to focus your attack in a small area, break through, encircle the enemy units or create a front that is too big for them to handle and sneak for the victory points.
Keep in mind that, thanks to your leader's spirits, your units will perform better than theirs on a 1:1, you just need to avoid giving away that advantage.

[HappySack]

It's impressive to be able to lose since you have to actively try to do so, or perhaps from doing too much?

If you're not doing exploits then it's as simple as putting everything on a single front line and pushing every objective until you win because your leader with the skull hat has an incredibly powerful bonus that guarantees a combat advantage for all your divisions.

The only thing to micro is your tank divisions for flanks or encirclements.

If you're still having difficulty then I can post a video to demonstrate.

[apudzuf]

Aside from the advice provided above, I'd also recommend:
- Gain at least 5 army XP prior to the civil war (either by doing Army Innovations focus or putting all divisions on training).
- Disband the army.
- Once civil war starts, create a single battalion template and train a full army of them.
- Force deploy them at 20%, convert most of them to infantry divisions and a few to panzer and motorized (depending on how much equipment you have).
- Assign this new army to the front line, wait a few days for them to get org and equipment, then start offensives. You can execute a field marshal attack order for this, but some micro is prudent in specific places to pin and support attacks.

Sort of cheesy, but generally makes the civil war fairly winnable, even if you're taking the Oppose Hitler focus at the start, which leaves you with less equipment to work with.

[ANÚωÙBIS-6VI6]

Well...um... It turns out I was playing too passive/slow.

I read your changes but also came across another strat and changed tact. Instead, I immediately picked Oppose Hitler. Disbanded all ground forces, trained nothing, and waited for the war to begin.

Once begun, I immediately began training a mix of infantry, motorised and armour, while putting all of my basic infantry under a single general to hold the while front. Once my new army was built, i organised and rushed everything to take southern Germany. I detailed ALL of my airforce (thanks Immortalis) to support Manstein and the south fell frighteningly fast.

So...yeah...the rest was mop up and war was over by Jun'37. Casualities between 200k-500k (total both sides).

Maybe I should play like this more often...

[55zanaris99]

I don't know man if you struggle with THIS civil war maybe the game isn't for you

[Luey Hewis]

You can choose to go for German civil war immediately or postpone it after 1 or 2 focuses. If you delay it, convert all mils in eastern Germany to civs to deny the Nazis from resupplying. By the time you choose civil war, you can crush the Nazis before the year is out.

Militarily, you will need to get all your soldiers and line them up along the East West German border. 2 or 3 armies, is good. When the civil war kicks off, fill in the gaps with the militia units you are given. Then supplement your armies with new divisions.

Don't worry about your navy. Attach your air wings to the army commanders so you don't really need to micro them and have then do ground strike and air superiority.

In theory you should be able to crush Hitler before 1937 with microing your ground troops to encircle the germans.

I like to eventually split the Nazis with a pocket in Bavaria and a pocket in East Germany. Once you've encircled and destroyed at least a quarter of the Nazis, you will have no problems mopping the rest of the Nazis up.

[captain403]

Without any dairy whatsoever (other than pre-deploying the existing army), taking Oppose 1st should get you the victory within a few months. The only way to even get close to losing is if you are doing it deliberately.