Breaking into the great Paradox abyss

[sandman2575]

Getting the fully up-gunned HOI3 with all expansions at this point is a must, IMO.  You can get the "Hearts of Iron 3 Collection" and "Their Finest Hour" and voila, you have state-of-the-art HoI3.

BlackICE is (in my view) the best HOI3 mod.  However, it changes the game pretty significantly, so I'm not sure I'd dive right into that without first familiarizing myself with the base game. 

Perhaps the better move, if you want a mod, is the "Total Realism Project" mod, which as far as I understand, leaves the vanilla game more or less intact while giving you much improved AI.

[JudgeDredd]

The HoI III Collection on Gamersgate does not include Their Finest Hour.

Paradox are one of the main culprits here when dealing with "collections"...You would think it would be quite simple...buy the "collection" and you get the lot...but no - you are almost as bad off as I am at the moment with HoI III and Semper Fi...I still have to look into what other DLC I could get...as you do with "The Collection". They did the same with EUIII...several version came out and you were never entirely sure which version wa the complete version.

Aaaargh!

[eyebiter]

.

[Jarhead0331]

The HoI III Collection on Gamersgate does not include Their Finest Hour.

Paradox are one of the main culprits here when dealing with "collections"...You would think it would be quite simple...buy the "collection" and you get the lot...but no - you are almost as bad off as I am at the moment with HoI III and Semper Fi...I still have to look into what other DLC I could get...as you do with "The Collection". They did the same with EUIII...several version came out and you were never entirely sure which version wa the complete version.

Aaaargh!

That's not really fair. Sometimes collections are released including the DLC released at the time. Sometimes a collection is released around the time a new DLC comes out to help others jump in and get everything released prior to the new content. I don't really see a problem with this.   

[Jarhead0331]

If you build a run of 10x3 factories starting in 1936, should have enough IC for war in 1939.

For hoi3 will usually use the 10% IC or +25% resources minister, depending how few rares available. 
Also use Logistic leaders to reduce supply consumption. 

If you have extra IC early build infrastructure and ports to keep supplies moving.  Manually control a stack of transports running air supply missions.  Also try to intercept allied bombing raids to minimize damage.

Plan for the time when your armies begin to run out of gas and supplies in Russia.  Will often transfer Panzer or Mech Infantry divisions to Western Europe before D-Day, and keep Infantry and Calvary in the Eastern Front once the Soviets retreat east of Moscow.

Is building that much infrastructure right out of the gate sensible? Won't resources be better spent on military units who can then take and hold foreign territory that itself has IC producing infrastructure?

[sandman2575]

I can honestly say that, in many, many times playing Germany in HoI3, starting in '36, I've never bothered to build infrastructure or factories.

It's actually one of my complaints, actually, that logistics doesn't really matter all that much in any of the HoI games. (Nor does army / navy intel.).  I've never been stalled driving into USSR due to lack of supply, weather, or insufficient infrastructure. (Slowed maybe, but never stalled.) BlackICE makes some of these aspects much more of a challenge -- in fact, beating USSR as Germany in BlackICE is hard.  But in vanilla, Germany always seems to have plenty of IC, manpower, supply, and sufficient infrastructure to make the whole war-machine run smoothly -- a little too smoothly.

[JudgeDredd]

Well - it's how I feel JH. Everytime I go to look at what DLC is available, I'm like "Can't they put this in a collection", and when I find the collection, you're just about to by and realise that isn't "the" collection...it's just "a" collection.

[eyebiter]

.

[undercovergeek]

I can honestly say that, in many, many times playing Germany in HoI3, starting in '36, I've never bothered to build infrastructure or factories.

It's actually one of my complaints, actually, that logistics doesn't really matter all that much in any of the HoI games. (Nor does army / navy intel.).  I've never been stalled driving into USSR due to lack of supply, weather, or insufficient infrastructure. (Slowed maybe, but never stalled.) BlackICE makes some of these aspects much more of a challenge -- in fact, beating USSR as Germany in BlackICE is hard.  But in vanilla, Germany always seems to have plenty of IC, manpower, supply, and sufficient infrastructure to make the whole war-machine run smoothly -- a little too smoothly.

Conquered Europe as Italy and Germany..... never built a factory

[Greybriar]

That being said, and not to derail the thread but what are the must have mods for HOI:III?  I want to give HOI:III a try this weekend but, like many of us, I need it to grab me right away.  Great mods certainly help.

I can't recommend any mods, but I do recommend all of the DLC. I think there is Semper Fi, For the Motherland and Finest Hour. All of them add significantly to the experience.

Wow!  I had no idea there was so much DLC for the game.  Does it all really enhance the game/immersion?  It looks like you could spend twice the cost of the game just on DLC.

Since Hearts of Iron IV is in the works, if I were you I would only invest in the three HoI3 expansions: Semper Fi, For the Motherland, and Their Finest Hour. Think of them as big patches. The DLC isn't really necessary in my opinion, but the expansions fix most of what was wrong with the game when it was released, or so they tell me.

[KyzBP]

That being said, and not to derail the thread but what are the must have mods for HOI:III?  I want to give HOI:III a try this weekend but, like many of us, I need it to grab me right away.  Great mods certainly help.

I can't recommend any mods, but I do recommend all of the DLC. I think there is Semper Fi, For the Motherland and Finest Hour. All of them add significantly to the experience.

After looking through my Steam account I found that I own HOI 3 w/ For The Motherland and Semper Fi.  I honestly don't remember buying them.  I'm thinking they were part of a bundle some time ago.

Wow!  I had no idea there was so much DLC for the game.  Does it all really enhance the game/immersion?  It looks like you could spend twice the cost of the game just on DLC.

Since Hearts of Iron IV is in the works, if I were you I would only invest in the three HoI3 expansions: Semper Fi, For the Motherland, and Their Finest Hour. Think of them as big patches. The DLC isn't really necessary in my opinion, but the expansions fix most of what was wrong with the game when it was released, or so they tell me.

[Electric_Strawberry]

JH,

Here's a link that helps with understanding the HOI3 OOB  functionality. While it references "For the Motherland," the principles apply to all of HOI3.  It really helped me get into the game.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95CHl9WQaA

[mikeck]

Sorry Jarhead, I'm a little late to the game. Paradox games are like AGEOD games; they are comes but once you learn one, the rest are opened up to you. Like you I tried to learn with a a number of paradox games;mainly Eu3. I just could t get it and got bored quickly.

Although I finally broke through on CK2, I would recommend EU4 as a starting point.
1. Pick England around 1508. Your not at war and can sell Calaise to avoid war with France
2. It's extremely difficult for anyone to attack you because of the channel so you can stay out of continental wars
3. Between Scotland and Ireland,  you have lots of future lands to conqueror and none of them are powerful enough to cause you problems.

So. Start and just click on the little flags that tell you about missing advisors, causus belli and such and read them...but don't worry about them.
Find a buyer for Calais...keeping it will only  get you in a war with France.
Find your trade nodes and send a trader to the one in your land to "collect"
Send anymore you have to other ones to "steer trade".

After that, take a break, start clicking on things and looking at your territories. I will tell you this about paradox games. When you start out you think "this is it? I can build a fort or temple" but trust me, as your tech advances, you will get more. Force yourself to play for 2 hours. Keep your navy strong and concentrated and keep an army of about 8k inf, 3cav and 2 arty with a general to take care of any rebellions. That's all you need.

Just experiment, hire an advisor and see how it effects the warning of monarch points. Send diplomats to any scotish land to improve relations..once
High enough you can make them a vassal. Once they have been vassals for long enough, you can annex them.

It's a long process and just like distant worlds or AGEOD, you have to force yourself to sit down and learn it

[Jarhead0331]

JH,

Here's a link that helps with understanding the HOI3 OOB  functionality. While it references "For the Motherland," the principles apply to all of HOI3.  It really helped me get into the game.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95CHl9WQaA

Didn't watch part II yet, but from part I! this looks like exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

I've noticed that the AI seems to be trying to fill out the OOB in accordance with the "law of fives." At least, theater commands seem to be requesting build orders for tanks and infantry divisions and then placing them in under strength korps to fill them out.

[Ian C]

A few hints I've gleaned over the years:

AI control at the highest Theatre level is odd so only set AI to Army-Level HQ's or lower. Assign air assets directly to these groups, not to theatre level AI.
The Army HQ's are good for large fronts (Russia) and the corps AI for smaller regions (North Africa, Norway).

As a test, fire up the 1939 Scenario as Germany and assign each Army HQ to their historical objectives. Select Historical Battle Plan for Case White (Poland 1939).

Set Army HQ AI's to 'Blitzkrieg', make sure you've assigned air groups to each army HQ and let the game run. Once each Army has seized an objective, select another rear-area objective.

I've seen the Army-level AI's complete this to historical satisfaction.