Steam Sale: HoI III for $2.49

FarAway Sooner · June 17, 2015, 02:54:43 PM

I've never played any of the HoI games but love WW II history (even if most of the games I've played these days feel like Panzer General clones. If HoI III is on sale for $2.49, or I can get all the DLC for it w/the base for $11.49, which should I do? I'd need a really compelling recommendation on the DLC to pull the trigger on that, as I have no idea if I'd like the game enough to get past the base content.

Thoughts?

Greybriar · June 17, 2015, 03:03:14 PM

Last I heard you will need the Hearts of Iron III base game plus the For the Motherland, Their Finest Hour, and Semper Fi expansions at the very least. Consider the two expansions as big patches.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Silent Disapproval Robot · June 17, 2015, 03:03:27 PM

Just get HOI III and the DLC Their Finest Hour. That's the latest version of the game and that DLC invalidates all the previous ones. Their Finest Hour adds a lot of refinements to the system and improves on the UI.

PanzersEast · June 17, 2015, 03:33:56 PM

I've heard that Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game is better than HOI 3 but I have never played it. I may pick it up for $1.99 and see if that is true. HOI 3 even with the DLC became stale to me and while good concepts on paper, it just did not translate to game for me.

PE

Pete Dero · June 17, 2015, 04:25:39 PM

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on June 17, 2015, 03:03:27 PM
Just get HOI III and the DLC Their Finest Hour. That's the latest version of the game and that DLC invalidates all the previous ones. Their Finest Hour adds a lot of refinements to the system and improves on the UI.

This will not work i guess : Requires Hearts of Iron III, Semper Fi and For the Motherland or Hearts of Iron III Collection

http://store.steampowered.com/app/214986/

Silent Disapproval Robot · June 17, 2015, 05:05:23 PM

Fair enough. I'd just grab the base game and those 3 DLC then.

Bison · June 17, 2015, 05:27:33 PM

Yeah paradox DLC are always step ups with some features retroactive. So you might get some of the upgrades from the DLC, but not the previous ones necessarily. But considering most paradox games are on sale every other week at 50-75% off, you can always upgrade DLCs later on the cheap. Whether or not you like and get into their games is a completely different matter...

Tuna · June 17, 2015, 06:44:01 PM

Whatever you do don't read SDR's AAR as Italy, you'll have a hard time resisting after!

Silent Disapproval Robot · June 17, 2015, 07:44:19 PM

That was UCG's. Mine was more of a rambling series of posts starting out with "how the hell do I play this game?" and gradually evolving into a sort of truncated AAR of my playthrough as France.

My rambling attempts at France.

http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=6659.0

UCG's much better AAR of Italy.

http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=7248.0

FarAway Sooner · June 17, 2015, 11:16:09 PM

Thanks for the input guys. For $2.49, if it was good, it seemed like a great roll of the dice. Adding those 3 DLCs seems to bump the price up to almost $8. Still a cheap game, but I already spent a few hours this week smashing my head against the UI for CK2 before finally giving up on that as a game that's too dense for my children-raising-addled brain to comprehend.

Spending $8 on a 5-year old game that'll take a long time to figure out? I'm serious on the fence. Maybe I'll read that AAR, thanks!

Ian C · June 18, 2015, 05:12:16 AM

I highly recommend for any HOI3 players: http://blackicemod.com/

A huge amount of research and detail has gone into this mod, which IMO, is the best one out there.

small selection of features:

http://blackicemod.com/doc/unique-units/usa
http://blackicemod.com/doc/unique-units/great-britain
http://blackicemod.com/doc/unit-guide/armor-units
http://blackicemod.com/doc/major-event-chains/pacific-island-hopping-campaign

WallysWorld · June 18, 2015, 09:21:29 AM

Thanks for that tip about mod, Ian. Downloading now.

JasonPratt · June 18, 2015, 12:22:15 PM

While I can't compare the games directly (having personally played nothing of HOI3 and having only read some AARs on it, so far), Darkest Hour, especially with the "AAR" mod (which merges and expands the WW1 and the earliest WW2 campaigns, combining them with several other popular mods), is well worth the $2.

BFactor · June 18, 2015, 01:08:16 PM

I'm (slightly) considering purchasing the total HOI3 "collection" with all the DLC which includes gobs of sprite packs. However, I'm curious... does anyone play with sprites? I never played with sprites in HOI2 and am wondering why anyone would. They seem oversized and seem to make the map all too crowded.

PanzersEast · June 18, 2015, 01:13:31 PM

Quote from: BFactor on June 18, 2015, 01:08:16 PM
I'm (slightly) considering purchasing the total HOI3 "collection" with all the DLC which includes gobs of sprite packs. However, I'm curious... does anyone play with sprites? I never played with sprites in HOI2 and am wondering why anyone would. They seem oversized and seem to make the map all too crowded.

No, I play with Nato counters as they inform you better at what you are looking at. I am going to pick this up as well, I already own this from another site, however this is the only Paradox game I own that is not in my Steam account.

Do not get the sprites, I personally cannot stand them and the counters give you a lot more information at first glance of the map.

PE