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[cheesemcmuffin88]

I couldn't find a thread about Hearts of Iron 3 In general so I decided I would create my own thread just to share my crazy Hearts of Iron 3 stories.

For those of you who dont know Hearts of Iron 3 is a world war 2 era grand strategy game by paradox interactive, the creators of Victoria 2, Crusader Kings and Europa.   
Link's

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_of_Iron_III
http://www.heartsofirongame.com
http://www.paradoxplaza.com

For now this is going to be my only post here. Though this afternoon Im going to start a new game and post my stories from that on here. As it can get quite crazy and interesting. I am considering playing Argentina, Portugal or Poland and I would like input on what you most want to see.

[Anvilfolk]

I'm Portuguese and typically enjoy trying stuff out with Portugal... It seems to be very, very hard for the role of Portugal to be anything other than being passive or being destroyed in the HoI games. I was never very good at them, so I'd love it if somebody else played it and managed to become an active participant.

I always tried to get into the Spanish Civil War, but ended up being beat... probably because I had no idea what was happening at the time too

[Tobel]

I had the itch to play this a few weeks ago but just really couldn't push through it. I want to play a game where I control most of the grand strategy, but not really any of the construction and setup. I just use what they have, being able to play both on the global planning/movement side (setting up fronts, full invasion plans, etc.) as well as individual battles. Sort of a la WarGame but a more in depth global campaign mode.

[Erkki]

I had the itch to play this a few weeks ago but just really couldn't push through it. I want to play a game where I control most of the grand strategy, but not really any of the construction and setup. I just use what they have, being able to play both on the global planning/movement side (setting up fronts, full invasion plans, etc.) as well as individual battles. Sort of a la WarGame but a more in depth global campaign mode.

Sounds like you could like WitPAE on the Allied side... Although you cant directly interfere with individual battles in it. Not that any sane person would want to. 

I like the HoI3, theres pretty much only 3 things I really wish that were done better. Air unit mechanics in general, naval combat and especially the AI. Ground campaigns rock in HOI! Only thing I miss is seeing what kind of bridages or regiments each enemy(and friendly) division is composed of in the battle screen.

[Anvilfolk]

Hahahahah, poor guy, don't go ahead and suggest the most complicated, detailed, micro-manageable game of all time, Erkki!

I was actually kind of disappointed in the ground war of HoI3. I was playing China, doing the war against Japan. It was extremely easy to game. We'd have a stable front. I'd open a few provinces up near the sea. Japan would rush right into there with lots of troops, capturing as much territory as possible. I'd then close off those troops with some reserves, and they would run out of supplies and be destroyed trying to get back. I did this multiple times until they didn't have a lot of units at the borders and started pushing.

[gimlet]

I had the itch to play this a few weeks ago but just really couldn't push through it. I want to play a game where I control most of the grand strategy, but not really any of the construction and setup. I just use what they have, being able to play both on the global planning/movement side (setting up fronts, full invasion plans, etc.) as well as individual battles. Sort of a la WarGame but a more in depth global campaign mode.

With HOI3, you could turn on the AI for any of the functions you don't want to handle personally - then that part will be as stupid as the other countries, so you'll probably have a more challenging game     I  never use the AI for research or production or trade because those are the fun parts to me, but I tried out the "semi AI control of armies" and it wasn't completely hopeless and DEFINITELY cut way way down on micromanagement if you could stand the inefficiency.   

I don't remember which features of it were added in patches or in the various expansions, I know you could designate "axis of advance" in the last one ("Finest Hour"), which definitely helped keep the invasion of France from turning into the war of attrition that used to happen when you left it all to the AI.  And you can switch on/off AI control of subtrees of the Order of Battle, so if you want to just control say a couple of key armored corps and let the AI handle the rest, I know a few players were playing their games that way...

It's still a huge nightmare to jump right into playing a global Major Power, as there's stuff happening all over the world and 20 billion details to try to pay attention to.   I definitely recommend building up to it through the scenarios (Spanish civil war, Brazil/Argentina) and getting used to parts of the system through playing minor countries first - Poland with a 1939 start, then some 1936 starts to see how long you can last,  Nationalist China gets into a fight pretty early in the game, and you can ignore (heh can't really afford) air and naval forces any time soon.    An Allied regional power like Canada or Australia, and focus on supporting the Allied cause with naval or air power, then maybe something like Italy, which needs all 3 air/ground/naval but is small enough in size/scope to be manageable.

[Nelia Hawk]

i still wish games like HoI3 or Crusader kings would have some sort of random map/everything mode... kind of like space 4x games. where you start small and expand... and that with a random map and all the nations thrown in.

think i once played a similar game to that with random maps.. think it was called "peoples tactics 1" or something around that... it too had some sort of supply lines and chain of command. i guess that is from where i always had the idea of a random map HoI as HoI is more "complex" overall.

[WealthyRadish]

I enjoyed HoI3 a lot, but I'd say it's a bit too specific. It tends to more or less railroad the world down similar paths, and I would've like to have an earlier start and more flexibility to make the really wacky stuff possible. Maybe there's a mod out there that extends it to 1918 or something, that could be fun. I remember I had to cheat hardcore to get my Axis Canada run to be any fun. I did have a blast kicking the crap out of the US as Japan, though.

There's also another thread here, may be worth a read.

[Shooer]

I was actually kind of disappointed in the ground war of HoI3. I was playing China, doing the war against Japan. It was extremely easy to game. We'd have a stable front. I'd open a few provinces up near the sea. Japan would rush right into there with lots of troops, capturing as much territory as possible. I'd then close off those troops with some reserves, and they would run out of supplies and be destroyed trying to get back. I did this multiple times until they didn't have a lot of units at the borders and started pushing.

This is how I captured Paton, as Argentina, in Chile, in 1939.  Only difference is that I used my airforce and subs to cut off their supply and let them storm into the mountains to take horrible attrition.

think i once played a similar game to that with random maps.. think it was called "peoples tactics 1" or something around that... it too had some sort of supply lines and chain of command. i guess that is from where i always had the idea of a random map HoI as HoI is more "complex" overall.

That can be found HERE, and it is completely free.  Also on that site is it's commercial successor Advanced Tactics.

Advanced default set up is a WWI to Cold War style with most things just abstracted.  People's came with a ton of... weird one off scenarios (Banana Republics who could only recruit militia and buy foreign mercs and light tanks, and one that was a terrorist army attacking a city who could only recruit criminals while the other side started with cops but recruited actual army units) but mostly fit that same theme.

[RedKing]

There's some converters out there for getting a Victoria 2 game into HoI3. If you've derped up the world enough in Vic2 (or even better, start derping it up in CK2, then EU4, then Vic2, THEN HoI3) you can have a truly different experience. Had an imported game where Russia was an Imperial Fascist regime (the 1917 Revolution never occurred), Germany was a functioning democracy, France was Paternal Autocrat, and America was borderline Fascist. The converter attempts to build an Allies, Axis and Comintern grouping based on ideologies (which are themselves based on countries' politics in Vic2).

 

[cheesemcmuffin88]

Hey guys sorry about not getting a post up last night. I started playing a game as Argentina In an attempt to make Argentina an Axis member. Just to mix up the standard Argentina strategy. But a friend of mine came over and long story short I left the game running after I joined the Axis powers and everything was being controlled by the Ai so somehow I ended up going to war with America and Argentina got ate. Im going to try Argentina tonight again and go from there.

[EnigmaticHat]

This is the only Paradox Grand Strategy game I haven't yet learned to play.  PTW.

There's some converters out there for getting a Victoria 2 game into HoI3. If you've derped up the world enough in Vic2 (or even better, start derping it up in CK2, then EU4, then Vic2, THEN HoI3) you can have a truly different experience. Had an imported game where Russia was an Imperial Fascist regime (the 1917 Revolution never occurred), Germany was a functioning democracy, France was Paternal Autocrat, and America was borderline Fascist. The converter attempts to build an Allies, Axis and Comintern grouping based on ideologies (which are themselves based on countries' politics in Vic2).

I'm probably going to convert my Mexican Vicky 2 game over when its done, I'm having enough fun I'll probably take it to the end date.

Do you know if spheres of influence matter for the converters?  One of my goals is to build a strong sphere of influence in SA and East Asia, it would be annoying if none of that mattered.