Hearts of Iron IV

[sandman2575]

Watching those Lets Plays is painful.  Cool, but painful. Gonna be a long weekend, and not in the good way.

Actually still not certain who I'll play my first game as.  What are y'all thinking?

Germany is usually the optimal choice for a first go around. They're strong militarily, industrially, and tech-wise. Plus they get into the fightin' at the earliest date (in Europe, that is).

Other first 'easy' option is the USA -- though waiting out until you actually join the war can be a bit of a drag. Still, this is probably where I'll start.

Intriguing other options are Italy and France. I like that they're not as sprawling as British Empire or USSR. Both are militarily capable and manageable. If I'm feeling more daring I may start with one of these.

Pretty certain the following are out for my first play thru --  UK, USSR, Japan. Love all 3, but don't want to deal with their particular challenges right away.  Impressed that Arumba chose USSR. The man has gumption!

[Hofstadter]

I usually play as a smaller nation first, greece, romania, bulgaria. I find jumping into the major powers in info overload

[sandman2575]

I never play minors like Greece, etc. In past HOI, they just never had the capacity to do much of interest, unless your only ambitions are *really* local goals ('conquer parts of Bulgaria' kind of thing).

Italy is basically as 'weak' as I go. There's just to much interest in what all the majors can achieve that I find I never get bored alternating among USA, Germany, UK, USSR, Japan, Italy, France.

[Ian C]

I'm 23 minutes into Quill's second video and I think I'm utterly sold.

Actually still not certain who I'll play my first game as.  What are y'all thinking?

Apparently, Italy is the nation we play in the tutorial and we can continue to play after the tutorial has ended. This might be a good place to start, in case we mess things up during the learning experience, leaving the other majors for a later treat after becoming more familiar.

However...I'm spoilt for choice. I usually favour the UK or US as my go-to. Plus, we have two starting points: 36 or 39. I'd be tempted to play as the UK for '39. A few months of prep time, and war in Africa before the Blitzkrieg.

[Hofstadter]

Preordered :D

[acctingman]

I'm not pre-ordering. Since this will be my first HoI game, like...ever, I'm going to wait and see if there are any major bugs or patches that need to come out after the first several weeks and wait and see what the grogs here think of the game/share their knowledge.

[JudgeDredd]

Man - loooong weekend indeed.

I'm wet just thinking about watching Quill's videos. He turned me right on to MoO  :))

[acctingman]

Can someone link me this video? Not sure who Quill is  :-\

Thank you

[Pete Dero]

Quill18's let's play : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs3acGYgI1-stmmaOdyLR1FS1hvUIflCL

[acctingman]

Thank you Pete!

[Rayfer]

Quill18's let's play : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs3acGYgI1-stmmaOdyLR1FS1hvUIflCL

Quite impressive looking game but there's no way I'm watching 3.5 hours of 'let's play' videos....!

[sandman2575]

Sad thing is, I probably could watch 3.5 hours of HOI4 video, if I let myself. (I won't.)

This is one of those times where sheer excitement for a new game makes all my existing library seem dull and not worth the effort...  Which maybe isn't a bad thing -- plenty of other work and chores I should get done instead!

[Ian C]

This is one of those times where sheer excitement for a new game makes all my existing library seem dull and not worth the effort... 

I was the same until I picked up Witcher 3 on sale two days ago. Glad I did. What a game. Back to topic...

[sandman2575]

Witcher 3 is too hard for me. I'm absolutely terrible at the combat.

But as a technical and artistic achievement? Wow, yes, Witcher 3 is astonishing. It features the most convincing game-world I've ever experienced -- frankly puts Bethesda's games to shame.

anyhoo -- wish i was playing HOI4 this weekend ...    :'(

[Raied]

Any review yet?