Hearts of Iron 3: Their Finest Hour

[Yskonyn]

I'd be interested in trying out an MP game but I wonder how long it would take to play out the war.  My game's taken me weeks to play and I've sometimes played 4 hours at a stretch.

Thank you for all the links!
Well at least MP games can be saved and continued later. Depending on your timezone that should be a workable solution, but it will take a loooong time to complete a game. I agree.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I'm in the Pacific Time Zone (GMT -8hr).

[Tuna]

EST (GMT-5)

[Tuna]

Another great video on AI Army control by that same guy who did the other tutorials.. .Boy it seems a lot easier, then what I remember 'before' FTM.

[Grim.Reaper]

So is the AI competent in controlling your troops on your behalf if you give it assignments?  Or do you still really need to control every unit?  If so, that would help with all the micromanagement I fear when I try and play this game.

[Tuna]

I think it was a lot different setting up the AI when I played a long time ago.. like you 'drew' your front lines.. with objectives beyond... It looks like now it does that for you, you just set your objectives and it does the lines for you, but it's cool that it shows you where they are.

I think like SDR said, if it's a small country with not a lot of fronts, you really don't need to do the AI, you can manage the battles yourself.

But I would think if you were something big like Germany with multiple fronts and you wanted to focus on one area and let the AI do the others, that would be a plus.. just depends on 'how much' you can trust it..

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The Anglo-French offensive of February-June, 1944 saw France involved in the heaviest fighting seen since they turned back the Germans in '43.  Sustained pressure ousted the Wehrmacht from Luxembourg and back into Germany.  The British, Commonwealth Forces, and the armies of the occupied nations attacked north of the Rhine into Saxony and Westphalia while the French attacked south of the Rhine into Saarland, the Palatinate, and Baden-Wurttemburg.  This was terrible terrain to fight offensive actions in and the French armies paid in blood for every foot.  In late April, Aachen became the first German city to fall into Allied hands.  This loss of this city seemed to galvanize the Germans and they threw everything they had at the French lines in a desperate attempt to stop the advance.  The SS units and their new King Tiger tanks proved to be very formidable and pushing them back from the woods and hills was a very costly affair.  Nonetheless, we did push them back and  by mid-June, we were laying siege to Dusseldorf and Cologne to the north and Saarbrucken in the south. 

On June 6, 1944, with the front lines now well to the east of the Low Countries, the French government formally returned control of Belgium and Luxembourg to their rightful governments.  The liberated peoples of these nations immediately took up arms to fight alongside the French.  In the north, the British took Hamburg, Bremen, and Hannover and were fighting along the banks of the Elbe.

French and Belgian forces attacked Dusseldorf and Cologne on June 10th and these  cities were taken a week later as German forces were pushed back across the Rhine.  I had hoped to stay right on their tails and keeping knocking them back before they had a chance to reorganize, but sadly this proved to be an impossibility.    The heavy casualties suffered during this push drained French reserves to nothing and I no longer had the manpower necessary to replenish my forces (France had a manpower rating of 552 when the big German push in '43 happened.  It was down to 156 when Luxembourg was taken and hit zero just after Cologne fell.)

It was a bittersweet moment to have to sit idly by when the German lines finally broke in the first week of July and the Brits crossed the Elbe.  At the same time, the Soviets broke through at Breslau and Posen and the race was on for Berlin.

A combined force of British, Canadians, and Free Danes attacked Berlin on July 8th, 1944 and 3 days later the Nazis formally surrendered to the United Kingdom. 



With Germany now out of the war, the remaining European Axis members scrambled to get their forces back to their respective countries in the delusional hope that they could stop the Allied juggernaut.   Rumania had already fallen to the Soviets before Germany surrendered but none of the other Axis nations were willing to capitulate.

France's earlier drive into Italy had stalled due to manpower shortages in the north around Milan and Genoa and to supply shortages in the south around Taranto and Naples. With Germany now out of the picture, we once again had the men and materiel to renew our advance.  We may have missed out on Berlin, but there was no way we were going to let anyone else take Rome!

Our tanks in Germany cut through the now neutral Austria just ahead of the British.  We caught the Italians in a state of retreat and Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Pisa all fell without a fight.  Diehard Italian fascists rose up and formed partisan bands in Sicily but quickly learned to their cost that conviction and a bolt-action rifle are no match for seasoned marines with gun support from 3 battleships.  Italian regulars put up some determined resistance in Naples and Ortona but this was short-lived and both cities fell within a few days of fighting. 

In August, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia surrendered to the USSR.  Britain liberated Crete and landed paratroops in Athens.  On August 25th, French forces encircled Rome from the north and south and Italy surrendered to us unconditionally on August 29th, 1944.

[sandman2575]

Great AAR -- congrats on subduing the Hun.  I like that you made the non-conventional choice of playing France.  (This from someone who never seems to be able to resist un-imaginatively playing as Germany or UK or USA.)

I haven't played HOI3 in over a year, but these posts are rekindling my interest.

I highly recommend the "BlackICE" mod -- adds a lot of nice flavor, although it's rather Germany-centric.  Still, I wouldn't play HOI3 without it.

[Tuna]

Great job SDR! From the sound of it, I bet you got a lot of satisfaction, from this win!

[sandman2575]

Occurs to me that P'dox has been awfully quiet on the subject of an HoI 4.  With high-profile sequels like CK2+expansions and EU4 being rolled out, can an HOI4 be far behind?  I'd love to see it.

[Martok]

Fantastic AAR!  Very well done, SDR. 

You definitely have a certain knack for storytelling.  I could feel the tension with how things were touch-and-go from the war's beginning through hard fighting that took place during the winter of '43-44.  :) 

Occurs to me that P'dox has been awfully quiet on the subject of an HoI 4.  With high-profile sequels like CK2+expansions and EU4 being rolled out, can an HOI4 be far behind?  I'd love to see it.

My personal hunch is it'll probably be a little while yet before the next HoI title is released.  However, I agree it's inevitable we do see another one; the only question is whether it's already in the pipeline, or still just on Paradox's "to do" list. 

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Well, the war's not over yet.  Slovakia and Hungary still need mopping up.  Then there is the other side of the globe.  While we were focused on eradicating the Nazi menace, the Japanese have been running rampant in Asia.  They have pushed deep into Soviet territory and taken Vladivostok. Apart from a few bits of jungle, most of the French colonial holdings in Indochina are occupied.  The Brits have lost Sungapore, Malaya, and Hong Kong.  The Aussies are fighting in the jungles of Borneo but giving up ground.  Most worryingly is the silence from the USA. 

Apart from a few brigades of Rangers seconded to the Brits early in the war, we saw nothing of them in the European conflict.  No lend-lease.  No help with the U-boat menace or the Luftwaffe bombers. I think the Japanese navy must have bested them sometime in 1944.  I didn't pay too much attention to the Pacific but whenever I did have a look, it seemed like the Americans and Japanese were contesting the island chains throughout the ocean. Wake , Saipan, Midway and several other islands seemed to change hands quite a few times.  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think the Japanese navy got the best of the Americans somewhere near Guam because I had been surprised to see Guam back in US hands at one point even though all the chains to the East were controlled by the Japanese. A few months later, I got a message saying Hawaii had fallen to Japanese marines. When I had a look at the map at that point, the US had been pushed out of the Pacific almost completely.  They still held some of their Alaskan islands but that was it.

Im torn. Part of me wants to continue the game just to see what happens.  Can the US industrial might come back from this? Will the Soviets try to take the rest of Europe?  They've massed a tonne of troops along the Oder.  However, I think I'm going to end it here as it kind of feels right.

If I were to continue, I'll pretty much be playing as a spectator.  I was forced to steer my research and production towards land warfare and as a consequence, my navy is still using WWI era tactics and technology.  It'll be years before I can catch up.

I had a fantastic time playing this campaign.  The sense of history really came alive for me and the sense of tension and drama were palpable at times.  I think part of the reason for that was because I didn't know the game's mechanics all that well so I was never really confident that I'd taken the best path or made the best choices regarding R&D and army production.   The game really is all about numbers and optimization so I think that, in my case, once I  get a really good understanding, it'll lose that sense of drama and turn into more of a game of accounting.  Thankfully I think learning to play as the Brits or the US or Japan and have to deal with multiple fronts and juggle armies, navies, and air forces and deal with long lines of supply will provide plenty of challenges yet.

[jomni]

Too bad you're ending the game.   :(
A lot of interesting things may still happen.

[mikeck]

I'm really looking forward to the Cold War version of this game coming up. What a great engine to play out a Warsaw Pact v NATO conflict. I have never played HOI but this is most anticipated game

[Staggerwing]

^I have not heard anything about a Cold War game. Any links?

Also, has anyone taken a minor nation such as Brazil or South Africa and turned it into a nuclear state with long-range bombers or short range ballistic missiles?