Their Finest Hour Diary: Pre-War Build-Up

There are times in grand strategy games when one comes to appreciate the advantages of running a totalitarian system, the sort of closed society where orders are obeyed, trains run on time and you can change all cabinet positions on a whim.

When playing Nazi Germany, I am able to minimize resource use and maximize industrial capacity for a few years in order to build up my industry and forces and then switch ministers around in order to prepare for the assault on Poland, France and then Communist Russia.

In the United Kingdom, my Prime Ministers only get changed via political events and my selection of ministers is pretty limited (there are no administrative geniuses to choose!) and I have a hard time finding any sort of synergy between my leaders and the kind of units that I have to use.

Finally, I' manage to create two solid interceptor groups before the war starts, on the historical date in early September 1939, as well as a strategic bombing group to take out enemy industry.

I also have just three full army groups of infantry and artillery that I plan to initially use to try and defend a pocket of Poland, as long as the core of the United Kingdom is not under threat.

I also have my huge and mostly obsolete navy, which I have split into carrier groups and normal battleship forces and spread throughout the Mediterranean, the Far East, the Atlantic and the home isles.

I plan to use the best units to engage and defeat the Kriegsmarine as quickly as possible and then support land forces and try to take out all the enemy convoys that I can.

I just hope that Germany proves to be a worthy adversary and does not get bogged down in Poland before attempting anything of significance.