Hearts of Iron is by far the best wargame I have ever played. By now you’ve probably figured out that playing one of the larger countries takes weeks to go from 36’ to 47’. If you haven’t already, go the official site’s forum and download the reasearch assitant. It really helps.
And for the love of God, if you are playing an axis country make sure you have enough garrisons w/police already built whenever you annex a country. I was about a week ( 10hr/day) of gameplay in and I was playing Japan and I had swept Nationalist China down to about 10 or so territories where I had planned to stop so the garrisons I was building could catch up to the frontlines ( I only had about 1/3 of China pacified). All of a sudden a “China surrenders event” comes up. It offered me all of Nationalist China only or China plus all of the warlord states that I had taken if I wanted them. I said “what the hell, I’ll take it all.”. Bad move. The whole country went ballistic. The partisan rate in every territory was around 35%. My foreign IC bonus was crushed and my TC was through the roof. I had to create a puppet state and fed it and Manchukuo as many non-resource bearing non-IC territories as possible. It took me almost a year to pacify the whole country. It also took me six months just to move all of my divisions ( I had about 100 mostly Inf and Mtn) into position to push into British controlled Pakistan and India. It took another 2 months to get their organization levels back to full. As it was, I was still upgrading my Infantry from 39’ to 41’ while I was researching 43’ Inf. I had to quit, it was too frustrating. Don’t ever let your TC get out of control or you’re in for a long hard road (partisans kill it). I think I still have that game saved, but I don’t look at it because it represents 3 full days of my life wasted.
I bought and played both HOI1 & HOI2 (also Europa Universalis II). All 3 of these are great games, but they are not for the “faint of heart”. They do take a long time to play and there is a lot things to deal with besides combat strategy (tech, supplie lines, production ques, diplomacy, economics, politics, etc…). The game has gazillions of territories & units and alliances aren’t set in stone so there are plenty strategy options. The AI is fairly decent, but is no match for a decent player which is why I lost interest & haven’t played in awhile. There are sites where you can play online, but these games are “Real Time” and I like to mull over my strategy before I move so I’ve never checked any of them out. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has played online.
I’m loving this game, but haven’t played it that much the past two months (read: not enough time). One of the first things I did was play as Spain and went the Axis route. Germany and I carved up France, and I then turned around to upgrading my army and attacking N. Africa to help Italy. I’ve also got coast patrol with a few boats and planes, dampening the Allied supply line in the Atlantic and to remote colonies. This game kicks ass, but I wish I had more time to play it!
I can’t imagine playing online. Not being able to pause the game would kill me, especially if I was playing Germany where by 40’-41’ you’re dealing with 250+ divisions on 2 fronts, not including air, fleet, research, diplomacy, production, partisans…… Ugh.
The updates are pretty good about helping the AI be competitive and I always play on very hard so you get hamstrung while the whole world gets boosted. You CAN trick the AI in some circumstances but in very hard difficulty the AI’s divisions are faster than your’s and they regain organization even when moving so it’s a lot harder to isolate and destroy small pockets of it’s units until you get the numbers advantage.
Jermofoot,
I’ll assume that you took Gibraltar. An easily defended mountain territory with a level 10 port facility and a lock on access to the Med would be priority one for me.
I was curious as to how an online game would work exactly. The save feature MUST work, otherwise I would never do it. I prefer realtime, but use the pause function like crazy. Sometimes when you get going, you need the time to fly, and other times you need to sit 10-15 minutes and think before you do anything.
I’m still grasping some of the core elements to the game, and hopefully I haven’t forgotten any on my “break” from the game. If you have any other tips, that would be great.
U-505: I did take Gibraltar, probably right off the bat. But I still lost a few territories in Africa (had some I didn’t even notice I started with until I lost them! :lol: ), and after France I was headed back to retake them and others. Not sure where I’m going to go after that. Maybe try and attack England.
I’m a “pause-key” crazy user also. I just don’t see how it could work online in “Real Time”, with both sides pausing the game like crazy we would see the second coming before we even got past 1936 :-P
I believe you can save in “real time” although I don’t know exactly how it works. I also believe that pausing the game in “real time” is VERBOTEN. I think it confuses the server. It would have to be played at slow or very slow, IMO, or it would just be a confusion fest to me. I don’t know if the game is played directly off the Paradox servers or if it’s a host/client deal either.
A few tips off the top of my head:
Always run air missions during the day. Unless your enemy has air superiority in the area and your bombers are being shot up. It takes forever to repair and regain org for air units so don’t let them get wasted for no reason.
Always split your BB/BC’s and carriers into separate battle groups and run subs in groups alone. The AI’s admirals, and your’s as well, will ALWAYS attempt to stay within range of the carrier aircraft but OUTSIDE the range of capital guns and subs, so if you have 1 carrier in a group with 10 battleships/battlecruisers you will be wasting your BB/BC’s. I usually go with 1 Light cruiser(best air defense), and 1 Destroyer(best sub defense) per carrier plus 1 or 2 Heavy cruisers or 1 BB/BC (a few more if the fleet is huge) on the side in case someone’s fleet sneaks up on you at night( carrier’s almost always catch daytime raids well out of range of subs or capital guns, but night raids can be a different story). Always keep your capital ship/small ship ratio at 1/1 or better. If your capital ships(BB/CV/BC/HC) outnumber their support ships(Lt cruisers/DD’s) you take a penalty to combat effectiveness. The bigger the difference the bigger the penalty.
Avoid maxing out an admiral’s or air general’s command max even if you only have one good air general/admiral and the rest are strokes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had two maxed out fleets get caught by an enemy fleet in the same sea territory and end up having the more powerful of my two fleets get hit with the over command max penalty. Over command max KILLS combat effectiveness.
If you are playing one of the Axis powers, especially Germany and Italy, make ABSOLUTELY SURE that you are loading up on resources, money, and oil through trade agreements BEFORE the war starts. After the war starts, your trading options get rather limited (agreements with the allies get cancelled and UK cuts off the Med routes) and your overseas routes will be subject to heavy allied convoy raiding. Heavy industry and oil using units can run you dry quickly and I try to keep as close to minimum as I can with “consumer goods demand” so I’m always heavily negative on money from my tech team salaries. I trade supplies for resources, money, and oil. It hurts your production but supplies give you the best bang for your buck. Germany has a huge energy supply so you can get away with trading that for some of your needs.
I also can’t stress enough that you get the research assistant. Losing two weeks or more on research because you chose the wrong tech team can start to add up quickly. I’ll dig up the link later, I’ve got fireworks to watch now.
Here’s a few of my thoughts. If playing the US I like to expand Industry in 5 pt incremants (if you increase IC in territories with 100% Infrastructure it will take less time (about 8-9 months) for the additional industry to be built. Building up your Industry not only gives you more production points to spend it also increases your Transport Capacity. Research Carrier tech like crazy & when you get to Improved Carrier (Type V i think) stop and build 15 (you can have them ready before the war starts). Create 3 carrier groups (5 CV 1 HC 6 LC 6 DD) & go kick a**. I like 15 carriers becasue you can create 3 (5 carrier) groups which are just about invincible & later you can reoganize into 5 (3 carrier) groups. Even a 3 carrier group is pretty formidable. As for all those BB & CA the US starts with, I form them into surface groups to tag along with my carrier groups. They’re useful for providing shore bombardment but are useless in a naval battle by themselves against carriers.
If you’re playing the UK, for god’s sakes take control of your allies’ troops the last thing you want is Canadian/Aussie troops mounting unauthorized offensives. If you take control of France you can prevent the fall of France (you will need to get as many canadians to europe as soon as you can).
If you playing Germany, get lot’s of fighters good ones that have a Tac bmb capability, don’t bother with dive bombers their range is too short get Tactical bombers instead. You will need the Fighters on the Western front to intercept those pesky strategic bombers the UK/US send. When you invade Russia create Tactical Bomber wings of 1 fighter & 3 Tactical bombers. Once the invasion of Russia starts watch your Transport Capacity & make sure you have plenty of “Gestapo” (garrison units with the MP attachement). Every territory that has even 1% partisan activity will reduce your Transport Capacity, an overloaded TC will reduce your resupply/reorganization of troops & planes eventually bringing your offensives to a screeching halt.
In general I go for mobility lots of tanks & mechanized infantry. Airborne units are great I like to Build 3 Corps (3 units each). Without them taking africa will take forever. They’re great for dropping behind enemy lines during an offensive, invading overseas territorys where your transports would be destroyed & providing a ready reserve that can respond instantly to a break in your lines (especially on the Russian Front where the frontline is so huge).
It is amazing to imagine just how much research had to go into the making of the game. There are pictures and stats of over 18,000 politians and commanders just to give one example. Axis and Allies used to have no rival in my opinion but now I’m changing my mind.
One thing that does bother me though is that when playing as one of the less powerful Allied nations (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, ect…) you are the only nation that helps France (if you choose to). The United Kingom sits by and watches as you have to fight off the Blitzkrieg. This forces you to have to take military control of the UK. Firstly, that’s not very historical (a Canadian Supreme commander over the British forces?) and secondly; not only do you have to deal with the constant responsible of your own nation, you now have command of the entire British empire, and have to do a lot of clicking on those pop-up boxes.
As anyone found a remedy for this problem or ,perhaps, I’m the only one who this bothers.
Just saw this post.
Since I have only played the axis powers, minus Germany, I hadn’t noticed that the UK doesn’t help the French. Send an e-mail to Paradox at the official HOI webite. Paradox is pretty good about fixing problems. Although, it seems that they wait many months to collect a whole bunch of problems before they issue a new patch rather than fix them immediately as the requests come in.
I believe another problem is that AI ships have unlimited range which, as far as I know, they refuse to fix. Apparently, fixing this problem would require such a radical game makeover that they aren’t willing to do it. So, if you are playing Japan, don’t be surprised if you see a large UK fleet in the Indian Ocean even if you have taken all of their nearby ports.
Yeah, it just is a nuisance to have to take command of all Allied units to win a war. Has anyone tried HOI Doomsday yet?
Here is the download for Hearts of Iron 2 http://isohunt.com/dl.php?id=7355546
For anyone interested in A&A the RTS http://torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=751203
Is Doomsday even out yet?
It was sounding pretty cool, but I haven’t exhausted the original yet. Too much Red Orchestra. :-D
Is Doomsday even out yet?
It was sounding pretty cool, but I haven’t exhausted the original yet. Too much Red Orchestra. :-D
Yea its out. I think there should be a good torrent for it on torrentspy.com……ill post it later. I also have been playing Red Orchestra since its going to be free for 5 days. I dont like the infantry style of the game, but the tanks is another story. I love having a full crew on a T34/85 or a Panther. You have to work really well as a team though. Thats why I only play with friends. Anyways, ill post the torrent later.
Get RO, Mech. Atleast get with me tonight or tomorrow and we’ll play a game or two (username the same as A&A account). 2Manny’s ROOst is my common server. I’ll put the IP in the RO thread.
I like infantry maps more, which I’m much better at, but I rarely spend time with armor. I’ll play a tank map or two, or use the tanker class if it’s needed cause no one else will do it. But, I love the strategy, coordination, and VOIP.
Get RO, Mech. Atleast get with me tonight or tomorrow and we’ll play a game or two (username the same as A&A account). 2Manny’s ROOst is my common server. I’ll put the IP in the RO thread.
I like infantry maps more, which I’m much better at, but I rarely spend time with armor. I’ll play a tank map or two, or use the tanker class if it’s needed cause no one else will do it. But, I love the strategy, coordination, and VOIP.
Im all for it. Ill have to go to my friends house though. Im on dial up here. Add me to xfire if you have it. Ill pm you my xfire addy.
BTW heres a torrent for Hearts of Iron Doomsday expansion.
{removed by forums administrator}
It has a pretty good ammount of seeders. So you can probaly download it in about an hour or two……depending on your connection.
Please don’t post links in the forums to pirated software. This website does not condone this behavior but if you must communicate these things, use the private message feature.
Please don’t post links in the forums to pirated software. This website does not condone this behavior but if you must communicate these things, use the private message feature.
I got ya. :wink:
This game is dope! I have conquered the world as the Germans on Hard and am currently playing as Russia. 1942, Winter, and the Germans havnt even gotten near Stalingrad, but they are instead pushing towards Moscow. I would love to get online and play with some people.
Yeah, it just is a nuisance to have to take command of all Allied units to win a war. Has anyone tried HOI Doomsday yet?
I have Doomsday, it’s better, but even more involved. Spys and new techs.
