A Schleicher Germany Guide
Schleicher is the easiest German path, and here is a strategy that I often do for SP. (Welcome any suggestions for improvement)
Edit: update after for a test run.
1. National Focus priorities
Here is an illustration. The strength of Schleicher is that he can focus purely on the military.
The first 20 foci are strictly timed and there is little room for adjustment.
- Master of the World
- Buying Time with Spies (the only 35-day focus)
- The Second Expidition to China (You get 25 pp if victorious)
- Military Mission to Constantinople (Ottoman is a great ally if victorious in the Desert War)
Wait for Schleicher to be appointed the Chancellor
The Man in the High Castle
Queverbindung
Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst (In my current version I will always fail BM round 4 if you do not have this focus completed)
Shuffle Prussian Ministries (ticking war support is superior to 5% civ construction speed)
Sekretariat für Arbeitsbeschaffung
Secure Mitteleuropa Trade Links
Expand the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (1 Research Slot and powerful reform)
Wait for Black Monday turn to end, note that this timing requires you to win all 5 starting rounds
Regime of the Red General (You can get partial mob immediately upon completion in 1936/12/2)
Escalate Ruhrkampf Suppression
Wait for 1937/1 events to unlock the military tree
Yearning for Cannae (25% xp malus)
Einkreisungstheorie (25% xp malus)
Expand the Kriegsschulen (1 Research Slot)
Establish the W-System (The most useful 28-day focus)
Leading the Flock (should be just in time before the first Mitteleuropa Agenda is decided)
Wait 6 days until the Regulation System Agenda is passed.
The Regulation System
Centralise Headquarters in Berlin (You will get 5% of members' civ, which means immediately getting around 15 civs, which increases over time to around 30 by 1939)
That will conclude the 20 early-game focuses. you have much more freedom after 1937/7. In the next phase I like to focus on a balanced tank-air tech rush. The research phase goes like this:
Develop Self Propelled Artillery (bonus for 1940 Artillery, be sure to have 1939 artillery researched before completion)
Commission Manoeuvre Warfare Textbook (get Beck appointed theorist. If you are going mobile warfare this is great)
Proliferate Modern Communications (bonus for 1939 & 1940 radar, be sure to have 1938 radar researched before completion)
Establish the National Unity Front (The last time it could be done before the Bavarian Nullification crisis.)
Shattering Swords (or Operational Air War)
Dominates the Skies (or Supports the Armoured Spearhead, you want the bonus for 1940 Small Air Frame. You should already be researching 1940 Engine III for about 100 days before picking this focus so that research progress can be synchronised)
Raketenwerfer (bonus for 1941 Artillery)
Panzer Divisions
Develop Mechanised Infantry (bonus 1940 mechanised)
This would conclude all the research bonuses that we'll need. The time is 1938/7/6 and we will be on track to obtain 1940 Planes and Mediums with Howizer II and Radio III by late 1938 or early 1939.
If you want to rush 1940 medium chassis, you will have to rush Mechanised Wave focus early.
You have much more freedom for the rest of the game, here is a suggestion of what to do in late-stage war preparation:
Revolt of the Totalitarians
The Call to Total War
Unrestrianed Warfare (25% xp malus)
Renew the Rathenauplan (10% efficiency cap, if you prefer production to more army xp, it can be done before Revolt of the Totalitarians)
Industriewerke Network (for War Preparedness Act & Research bonus for a 1941 production tech)
Infantry Motorisation (-10% mechanised cost for 1 year)
Expand the HWA Automotive Section (-10% armour cost for 1 year)
Reform the HWA Aerial Section (-5% air cost for 1 year)
Mechanised Wave (10% armour attack & you can also make your tank-mech divisions without expending much xp)
Organise Cartelisation of the Economy (or another focus that gives industrial decision to finish War Preparedness Act.)
Military Railways (for War Preparedness Act)
Wegeneer Doctrine (lowers unrediness debuff)
The Psychology of the Footsoldier (HP+10% ≈ losses reduced by 10%)
Nationalist Indoctrination (attack bonus against major)
Surpass Syndicalist Piercing (gain 10% armour on tank before the production buff expires, but this is purely optional.)
That is all the focuses you can do before 1940. You can do some additional foci to further improve your army, but most of the WK2 should starts in early 1940.
2. Poland
Always be selling Polish assets on cooldown. You wouldn't be able to sell after the 1938 Polish election, and one round will provide you with 37.5 pp in total, and you have enough influence to go for 4-5 rounds, that's 150-187.5 pp in total. That's a significant sum in the early game.
There's an event to choose between losing 10% influence and -15 pp, always choose the second option as 10% influence is worth almost triple the pp.
You don't have to spend any pp on your Oststaaten, you can always send in your tank to make sure it remain loyal.
3. Advisors/Policy priorities
free Batocki-Friebe via focus Shuffle Prussian Ministries
- Early Mob
- Hugenberg (or Groener for 10% war support advisor, they will both die later)
- Partial mob
free agricultural advisor via event, remember to do the full Agricultural Reform at once
- Krupp (or VKL, ideally you want to go Krupp first and switch to VKL in early 1939 but you might not have enough pp to do so.)
- Chief of Army (Do not pick Beck if you want to go down mobile warfare)
- Chief of Airforce
- Thyssen (+15% mil construction speed, replace agri advisor before you begin transition to mil)
Bavarian Nullification Crisis will take 100 pp in total. After which M-P of Prussia will be removed. Hugenberg will die around the same time.
- Lutz (-10% armour cost)
- Zehrer (or other advisor of your choice, eg. Planck to help with research)
free theorist (Beck) via focus, you can replace him if you don't want to go down mobile warfare.
- Chief of Navy
- Limited Conscription
- Extensive Conscription
- 3x High Commands
4. Mitteleuropa
1937/1 - Directorate (doubles the effect of subsequent agendas)
1937/7 - Arms Expert (-10% Infantry equipment, artillery and armour costs)
1938/1 - Industrial Advisors (10% Construction Speed, 10 Factory Output)
1938/7 - Arms Expert
1939/1 - Industrial Advisors
1939/7 - Arms Expert
5. Ruhrkampf
You want to keep the intensity between 25 and 75. Don't do the decision to decrease the intensity until after you have passed the Enabling Act , as you can always choose events will lower it for you.
You want the mission to send an army (eg. Schleicher assasination attempt after visiting Ruhr) as it will grant you stability.
6. Bavarian Nullification Crisis
- Trust Roedern, do not run for M-P of Prussia
- let Winnig be vice-chancellor
- Completed the National Unity Front before 1938
- Mecklenburg & Oldenburg(Send Winnig), Saxony(Send Winnig), Brunswick(Threaten the State Commissar) and Turingia(R) (Unreasonable Demand) will be enough to guarantee you a majority
7. Production/Construction
Build civs until late 1937/early 1938, switch to mil after you have appointed Thyssen and have researched 1938 medium chassis. Just before the war you might want to build up some railroads and airports.
(Your starting fleet is enough but if you want to build up a navy you can build some dockyards before you switched to early mob.)
Put most of your new mils into building 1938 mediums that later could be converted to equip Howizer II & Radio III once you researched it.
After researching 1940 planes in late 1938/early 1939 you can start allocating most of your new factories to air.
By 1940 you should have 200+ mils, and the majority of your production should go to planes and tanks.
1940/1 Production. Not yet optimised so welcome to give suggestions.
8. Result in 1940/1
This is the baseline of what you will get based on my test run:
- 1 army (24 divisions) of 30 width tank
- 1000 1940 fighters & 500 CAS, and about 500 outdated ones
- 6 armies (140 divisions) of starting infantry
- 6 army doctrines and all air doctrine and naval doctrines I need.
Your result will depend on your factory allocation and designs.
(The test run is not perfect, and several important techs like heavy bombs for 1940 CAS got delayed for a couple of months. I think I did a pretty standard design for this version, but you may freely change and improve the division design and air designs according to your preference.)
9. Other important notes
- Always be sending volunteers. Even drawing a passive frontlines without attacking will earn you enough army xp to finish 5-6 doctrines. but beware too many casualties will reduce your war support and stop you from moving up your conscription law.
- Always upgrade your spy agency during the start of BM in 1936 when you couldn't utilise your civs. Collaboration Government is usually not worth it as it will only give 10% compliance and 3% lower surrender limit, but it can be useful if you hate capping Russia.
- Always be hosting Summit for Peace, you have enough pp and war support as Schleicher to do so.
- Train your navy and do the ACW and Indochina intervention decision after you have done at least the Second Einkreisungstheorie focus. This way you will gain the most xp.
- Always press for a better Argentina trade deal. There is a 90% chance of them accepting. If not you can always
save scum.Make the survival of Argentina a priority when doing volunteering. - Failing a BM turn is not the end of the world, you can adjust your focus to accommodate it, but it's better not to fail.
- You want Zentrum to align with you
- The cheapest way to guarantee an Ireland puppet is to do nothing until there are 70 days left(there will be a notification), then do 3x the decision that costs command power.