Hearts of Iron IV

[SirAndrewD]

One more question... How does the game handle ally cooperation?  Can you plan things like Operation Overlord?

There's no real ally coordination built in, so no, you can't plan things like Overlord in a conventional sense. 

What does often happen is that the allied AI will generally gift the human player or AI faction leader a large amount of its active military in the form of expeditionary forces.   Sometimes the gift will be as large as virtually their entire army. 

The expeditionary force mechanic was one of the biggest problems with the game prior to 1.4.1 since smaller countries could spam divisions and gift the AI faction leader hundreds and hundreds of units, that would choke their economy and supply lines.  Fortunately the end of division spam makes this much less of an issue.

You can see your allies battle plans, so if you choose to support the plans of the AI, that can be a form of coordination.

[SirAndrewD]

Well, the game is VERY improved, but I'm still chasing the ever elusive '36 US game where I can play as the States and actually participate in both theaters. 

First try was an impossibly bizarre once in a lifetime borked mess.  Totally not indicative of my experience with the patch.   Germany did the Anschluss on time, but then Hungary invaded Czechoslovakia before Sudetenland.  Germany then ended up bypassing the Sudetenlad decision since Czechoslovakia was part of "Greater Hungary" and, insanely enough, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Italy formed the New Roman Empire faction and went to war with Russia in late '38.  Germany stayed neutral when the Romans went to war with the allies as well.  I just restarted at that point, and yes, this was with historical focus on. 

Second try was much better but ended up being a let down as well.  The war went off as it should, and Germany very quickly dominated Europe and had enormous success in Barbarossa.  As the US I did everything I needed to prep, and after I popped the Pearl Harbor gambit in October of '41, the Japanese obliged and got me into the allies and the war.  The Japanese were VERY aggressive and took a lot of territory in the Pacific and there were a few touch and go carrier duels as I was putting together my forces for an intervention in the west.  So far, so very much better than anything I'd ever seen in HoI 4.

But then sadly, I finally checked Europe.  The Germans were alive, but barely.  The UK was close to liberating Paris with the Free French.   The Russians, who were pushed back close to Moscow in January of '40, were in Poland by December of '41.   I swapped to Germany and saw that the Germans had 400k men in the field and about 20 divisions on the Eastern Front to more than 150 Soviet ones.  Their armies were smashed, they were done.   So, sadly another one left in the dust.

Good news was that the second try, the Axis did nothing dumb.  They went the historical route, built the right forces, and Germany, Italy and Japan had incredible success all the way until Barbarossa.  Sadly, after that, at least Germany just still can't sustain itself, at least not on that try.

[Barthheart]

Well at least that second try sounds a lot more historically probable. If the Soviets hadn't gone through the purges of the early '30s they might have been able to put up a better fight in early Barbarossa.

Very encouraging.... and making it harder to not buy in....  :pullhair:

[Ian C]

Blofeld made a post. This is why I love the HOI forums.

[ArizonaTank]

One more question... How does the game handle ally cooperation?  Can you plan things like Operation Overlord?

Why they just don't go back to HOI II (at least I think it was HOI II) feature that let you control the military of your allies?   

[fabius]

Agree with others: Hoi4 is steadily improving, and the last patch made some nice steps with the Air War UI and AI front management.

Also, for anybody who has not tried it, or tried it lately, I recommend trying Expert AI 2.0 mod.
For me this mod improves the challenge so much that I can't play without it yet to dip into the total conversion mods.

It's added a new difficulty feature, "Desperate Defence": Chondrite, the author posted this:
"So if you set it for USSR, it will only start gaining bonuses when you go to war with it and take land from it. At maximum the new setting gives -75% unit training time and +100% IC output but that's only the case when it is 90% towards capitulation. At 5% capitulation the bonuses are -7% training time and +15% IC output. "

I think that this is just what all my East Front campaigns need when the AI runs low on equipment and become combat ineffective. Should help keep Germany in the war too.

Expert AI also now has a tech time-line sub mod.

Other mods I really help the seeing things clearly:
Bigger Production Menu 3 columns
Coloured Airforce (Background)
Colour blindness mod
Strategic View adjustments. (Really helps see the air fields etc)
Better terrain view.

[Geezer]

Picked this up on the Steam sale and have a question.  Playing my first game as the Soviets.  It's 1939 and we declared war on Poland (eastern Poland as the Germans got the western half).  About 10 other countries immediately declared war on us including Great Britain, France, Belgium, South Africa and others.  Poland capitulated soon after we invaded and we got some equipment out of it.  My divisions have occupied eastern Poland.  Problem is the war is still going on!?  Am I supposed to go attack all of Poland's 10 allies and beat them all to end the war or is that a bug?

[fabius]

Picked this up on the Steam sale and have a question.  Playing my first game as the Soviets.  It's 1939 and we declared war on Poland (eastern Poland as the Germans got the western half).  About 10 other countries immediately declared war on us including Great Britain, France, Belgium, South Africa and others.  Poland capitulated soon after we invaded and we got some equipment out of it.  My divisions have occupied eastern Poland.  Problem is the war is still going on!?  Am I supposed to go attack all of Poland's 10 allies and beat them all to end the war or is that a bug?

Poland joined the Allies so now you're in WW2 and have to defeat them

Don't understand why you declared war on Poland though. MR pact would have given it you the east of it for fee. Maybe you went Ahistorical ?

[Geezer]

Looks like MR pact kicked in after Poland surrendered but it did not end the war.  It wasn't at all clear to me that the pact would automatically give me eastern Poland, and I thought I still had to declare war.  It's only my first game so I guess it's time to start over.

[Jarhead0331]

Looks like MR pact kicked in after Poland surrendered but it did not end the war.  It wasn't at all clear to me that the pact would automatically give me eastern Poland, and I thought I still had to declare war.  It's only my first game so I guess it's time to start over.

If MR occurred AFTER Poland surrendered then you declared war first, which is definitely ahistorical.

[Geezer]

Yup, I declared war first.  Thought MR gave me the OK to do that and that I needed to do it to get my part of Poland.  Just me not understanding the mechanics I guess.

Edit - Thanks for the help.

[fabius]

Looks like MR pact kicked in after Poland surrendered but it did not end the war.  It wasn't at all clear to me that the pact would automatically give me eastern Poland, and I thought I still had to declare war.  It's only my first game so I guess it's time to start over.

I did the same thing with Hoi 3

To be fair, I'm not sure now what happens when MR is in play, and Soviets declare war. So am wondering whether you wait until Germany does the deed.

[glen55]

Paradox has released a free 57-page strategy guide aimed at helping folks get started with info that goes beyond the tutorial and into how to play well. I'm only a few pages in, but so far it ain't half bad.

https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/paradox/banners/HoI_IV_Strategy_Guide.pdf

[bbmike]

Paradox has released a free 57-page strategy guide aimed at helping folks get started with info that goes beyond the tutorial and into how to play well. I'm only a few pages in, but so far it ain't half bad.

https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/paradox/banners/HoI_IV_Strategy_Guide.pdf

Thanks!

[mirth]

Shouldn't you be figuring out Munchkin?