Hearts of Iron 3: Semper Fi – How to Untangle a Command Structure

It seems that most countries in 1936 had no idea how to optimize the command chain for their armies. Germany has loads of infantry divisions that have nothing special about them attached directly to their army corps commanders and even to theater headquarters.

Panzer commanders like Guderian are attached to slow infantry divisions. The United Kingdom has more high level HQs that it will need for the entire war. France, my chosen nation, seems to be worst than most.

It's not enough that it has divisions that are tied directly to Army Corps and Theater commands but the extensive command structures uses a lot of level one commanders that have no defensive or offensive traits whatsoever.

In Hearts of Iron 3 it's very important to have not just a big army (with size actually becoming a burden as the game progresses) but an efficient army. This means creating a command structure and using the best commander for each position. Divisions are tied to corps, which are then linked to armies, then to army corps and theaters.

The player can disband and create levels as he wishes, with the only limitation being that Theater HQs can never be eliminated and that under it each level can hold five inferior commands.

The problem is that all the re organisation needed when starting a 1936 campaign can feel like a chore. The game starts with an option to auto assign commanders, which can make things even harder.

It would have been nice to have the options to start with all commanders in the undeployed pool and with armies lacking leaders so that it can all go a bit easier. Well, maybe some players actually want to experience how World War II would have gone if no one had discovered that Manstein had a thing for leading mobile formations.

As to France the real big decisions are where to put that one four rank Panzer commander and how to mitigate the effects of those Old Guard generals who are pretty much unable to get enough experience to get a new rank. I tend to favor better people, preferably with traits, in the big positions.