Germany is the most popular nation to play as it is also the nation with most action. While it may seem easiest to play Germany as it is also has the strongest units, it also has a must be played well in order to achieve a total victory.
Germany's basic strength is her cities. Virtually all of them can be used to create strong military units, like tanks, ships and aircraft and all cities have a good training base, so most units come out with more promotions than most. Another strength is her initial units and the fighting power of each. She has the strongest units in the game (the major Army Groups, as well as her minor Army Groups), which will require a number of enemy units to defeat out right to wear them down.
Her only real weakness is her navy, so in the initial stages it is best to protect these units in either cities (beware of bombers) or in friendly minefields.
Main Cities
You should set every available square to main cities zone to production and to the detriment of the others. This is to allow shortest production period for each unit produced by it and the fastest growth in population and culture. Berlin also produces the highest amount of training and skilled personnel by virtue of being the capital and therefore attract the best soldiers.
Berlin: Panzer Korps then Panzer Divs should be your initial production focus.
Essen: Aircraft should be produced here
Hamburg: Ships should be produced here
Your border cities with Switzerland and Hungary should be set to culture when not producing buildings (or units) and the remainder set to research. NOTE: See the Cities for generic tips on how to manage them.
Your Units
As mentioned above Army Groups are your strongest units, with Panzer Armies, Armies and Panzer Korps following soon after. Next are your Panzer Divs, PanzerGrenadier/SS Divs and then Infantry Divs. You may also acquire Czech and Austrian Corps and other units, but these are best assigned to your other allies if possible (within their limits), so you are free to build your own stronger units.
List of Units (Max): Strength/Moves (location/HQ), Names in
Italics are to be built
Major Army Groups and OBs (5): 977/2 - Army Group Norway (Skien), Army Group North, Army Group Central, Army Group South, O.B. West, O.B. South (Monte Cassino), Army Group Africa (Africa)
Army Groups (5):877/1 - Army Group A, Army Group B, Army Group C, Army Group D, Army Group E, Army Group F,
Army Group G
PanzerArmees (10):622/2 - 1st, PanzerArmee (AG South), 2nd PanzerArmee (AG Centre) , 3rd PanzerArmee (AG Centre), 4th PanzerArmee (AG Centre), 5th PanzerArmee (AG B), 6th SS PanzerArmee (OB West), PanzerArmee Afrika (Afrika),
11th SS Panzer Armee
Armees (10):305/1 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th (Skien), 24th,
19th, 21st, 25th, Ligurien-Italia
PanzerKorps (20):267/2 - II SS, XIV, XXXIX, XXXX, XXXXI,
I SS, III SS, IV SS, VI SS, VII SS, XI SS, III, IV, XXIV, XXXVIII, XXXXVI, XXXXVII, XXXXVIII, LVI, LVII, LXXVI, Grossdeutschland, Herman Goring
Armee Korps (25):89/1 - 28 initial units
Panzer Divs (30):64/2 - 18 initial units
PanzerGrenadier/SS Divs (20):43/2 - 13 initial units
Infantry Divs (75):22/1 - 98 initial units
Many of these more significant units already have their respective generals assigned, whereas others have name in brackets awaiting additional generals to be created and assigned. You also have a number of initial Bf109, Stuka, He111 aircraft, Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers and U-boats spread around the map.
Land Units
These are your main forces and need to be used carefully. You will note above that you have a number of units that exceed your maximums, this means that when they destroyed and no longer re-born, they can not be built to exceed these maximums.
Speed is you main advantage in your Panzer forces and you should make sure you create a clear path for your slower infantry to follow. The best way is to take cities, especially those that are closely grouped, like in the low countries and northern France. This will allow for as rapid advance as possible.
Naval Units
As mentioned above, keep these in your cities or better yet in your minefields (best location is Kiel Harbour). The enemy will exhaust itself attacking these minefields and you may even get to keep some of the enemy ships that fail in their attacks. Later on, you can use your Z-Class Destroyers to reduce the enemy minefields
Air Units
Spread your fighters over your cities with any extra assigned to your western cities. Group your bombers into lots of 5 and base them on your Rhine forts. The Stukas should be based where you are going to make your initial invasions.
Invasion Strategies
Poland: Sep 1939 Place Army Group North near Danzig and Army Group South near Breslau. Army Group Centre should be as close to the Polish Border near the centre with the majority of your forces. You need to remember that you must strike as deep as possible in the first couple of turns as Russia will invade from the East in the 2nd turn of the war. For this reason, you should strike with infantry (1 moves) where possible in your initial attacks and then use your Panzers (2 moves) to strike as deep as you can. While you can't stop Russia getting the most eastern cities, you can get most other cities very quickly. If you are going to do some advanced bombing prior to the invasion, try to place at much effort on the 2nd series of cities. You should also try to eliminate their naval units as well.
Denmark/Norway: Apr 1940 Place your SS units near the Danish border and you should be able to eliminate Denmark in one turn. When you have taken all Danish cities, move your units to the Northern Netherlands/Germany border. The units you have based in Norway should take the nearby cities very quickly and then slowly move up the coast and should not need any reinforcements. When you have eliminated all Norwegian land units, move you units to the Russian Border and send the "Bergen" Panzer Division down to the southern Norway for guard duty.
Low Countries/France: May 1940 You should spread your forces evenly along the western German Border. Like the Polish campaign, you should use your infantry to make as many of the initial attacks as possible and use your panzer for deep strikes. If you plan your attacks right you should be able to eliminate all the low countries forces in the initial turn. You should then move onto France. However, do not take Paris too soon, so try to surround the city and drive deep into the French countryside as possible. If you take Paris too soon, Vichy France will form and the many of the French cities will become Vichy, so it is best to get as many cities as possible before this happens. (NOTE: If you are not playing Hot Seat, you need to be aware that Italy will invade France in June 1940, so you do not have much time as Italy will likely take Paris if you don't)
England: Jul-Oct 1940 You could attempt to take an English city via your airborne forces and then air transport some strong units into it and use this as your invasion tactic as you will unlikely have the ability to use transports at this stage. If you are unsuccessful in invading during this time, you should at least bomb the cities of their buildings and their defenses for as long as possible. The best tactic is to group your bombers in lots of 5 and target cities first and then surrounding countryside.
The Balkans: Apr 1941 You should place your fastest units (Panzers) near the Yugoslav border prior to the invasion, you could also place some of them on the Greek border as well. You should be able to take the majority of the cities in Yugoslavia in the first turn and maybe even a Greek city. However, after the first turn you should then move your virtually all your units to the Russian border to prepare for that invasion next. You could leave Army Group F to assist the Italians, Hungarians and Bulgarians in the clean-up of the remainder. If you are lucky enough to take Athens yourself you should place a "normal" great general there to build an airbase so you could land an airborne unit in Crete and complete that invasion as well.
North Africa: Apr 1941 Due to the start of the war against Greece, the Greek "lock" town in Africa should be attacked and the "Africa Korps" can then be let loose on the unsuspecting British. The "Africa Korps", should focus on clearing Egypt before moving onto the the rest of the Middle East. You don't have many forces, so let the Italians do as much garrison duty as possible and even assign most of the towns to their control if you like. Try to go as fast as you can so that you can possibly support an invasion of Russia from the Middle East later.
Russia: June 1941 This is the last major campaign of the Germans and it needs to be decisive, in order to have as many cities as possible so you can develop the tech required for a possible invasion of the USA. Like the Germans initial strategy in WWII you should set 3 major drives - Leningrad, Moscow and the Caucasus (via Odessa, Kiev, Kharkov and Rostov). The Russian's have an almost unlimited number of forces at their disposal as nearly every unit you kill is instantly reborn in their capital at least twice, whereas only some of your units are able to be reborn twice.
Northern Campaign: - Led by Army Group North. You need to clear the Baltic states of Russian forces as soon as possible so you can get to Leningrad and support Finland, before that country is eliminated. Any Finnish cities you re-capture you should return them to Finland to strengthen that country.
Central Campaign: - Led by Army Group Centre. You need to drive as fast as possible to Moscow as this is the main communications hub as well as it's Capital. Minsk and Kursk are major cities as part of this campaign. It will be a tough campaign because all the units you have been destroying have been re-born there so the main strength of your forces need to be in this campaign
Southern Campaign: - Led by Army Group South. You should attack the main cities of Odessa, Kharkov, Sevastapol and Rostov, before moving to clean up the Caucasus and take Stalingrad. If you are lucky your Middle East Units could assist in this part of the campaign.
Your Minor Allies: - If playing "Hot Seat" mode, you should create a second reserve line behind your main forces which will contain any counter attacks launched by the Russians, which can then be eliminated by your forces.
USA Joins Allies: Dec 1941 - From this point on you need to be alert to the possible invasion by sea of Allied forces. Also beware of other factors in North Africa and Southern England
