Hearts of Iron IV

[FunkMonk]

I want to play this game but every time I start it up and start playing I get tunnel vision and look at the clock and I say, oh, just one more hour, and then 6 hours pass and it's midnight and I have to get to work in the morning 

[Josephus]

I want to play this game but every time I start it up and start playing I get tunnel vision and look at the clock and I say, oh, just one more hour, and then 6 hours pass and it's midnight and I have to get to work in the morning 

Yup. Forget how addicitive this series can be.

[Josephus]

They don't really seem to get damaged as far as I can tell, just destroyed (the number on the map ticks down, then ticks back up vOv).  Replacements appear to come out of the reserve. 

I guess if you aren't losing planes anymore you can stop.  They have accidents and such too though, so maybe keep some sort of production?  Unless your reserve will just never run out or something. 

E: From the HOI4 Reddit:

Ha....good to know.

[Zanza]

I played a bit as Italy now, but I guess I didn't build divisions and fighters fast enough in my built-up. I did easily conquer Yugoslavia and Egypt though, struggling with Greece, barely holding the line against France.

I consider to restart with what I learned but play Japan or Germany this time. Somehow I only like to play the Axis in HoI... 

[Josephus]

I've gotten much better at handling fronts/armies, and now the combat AI doesn't seem nearly as braindead.  Typically I stick all the offensive units I want to attack in a particular direction under a specific general and have it cover the front where the attack will originate.  Defensive generals cover the other areas.  Draw the attack (waiting for divisions to get into position at least, wait for prepared divisions if not in a hurry or for tougher battles), initiate and monitor.  Shrink the offensive general's frontage to maintain focus, increasing the frontage of adjacent defensive generals as necessary.  Right click and hold on the big circles at the end of each front to shrink/grow it.

Defensive generals can of course initiate attacks, but those typically aren't the main focus.

Doing this about the only time I've had to command individual divisions is to mop up pockets.

I've found though when you have many armies on a single front, it gets very confusing

[frunk]

I've found though when you have many armies on a single front, it gets very confusing

Many armies are relative.  For the invasion of France I had 3, Russia 4 (expanding briefly to 5 when I broke into the Caucasus).  It's perfectly manageable if each army has its designated section of front.

[PJL]

I've found though when you have many armies on a single front, it gets very confusing

Many armies are relative.  For the invasion of France I had 3, Russia 4 (expanding briefly to 5 when I broke into the Caucasus).  It's perfectly manageable if each army has its designated section of front.

That sounds more like army groups rather than actual armies to me.

[The Minsky Moment]

Why is the UK led by the PM and Japan by the Emperor?

It would be pretty odd if the emperor led the UK and Churchill led Japan.

[The Brain]

Why is the UK led by the PM and Japan by the Emperor?

It would be pretty odd if the emperor led the UK and Churchill led Japan.

Oddly awesome.

[frunk]

That sounds more like army groups rather than actual armies to me.

I'm using the term armies for a group of divisions commanded by a general.  HOI IV doesn't have the complicated OOB that HOI 3 had.  There are technically two levels of general but the only significance is the lower level has a 24 division cap while the upper level is unlimited.

[Josephus]

Finished my game as britain soemtime in 1946. Didn't understand how the peace conference worked at all...ended up with Finland becoming the most powerful (geographically speaking) nation in the world with parts of Poland and western Soviet Union. I, Britain, got nothing. India did well for itself too.

Anyway, it was fun. Issues with interface not withstanding, and a few other glitches.

Will resume as Britain once more, this time historically. Alas, I'm on holiday for two weeks, so it will have to wait.

[frunk]

It seems like there's some weird choices on the National Focus trees when you compare between countries.  For instance If Italy pushes for their fifth Research Slot they can achieve it in 280 days (October 1936).  GB can get it in 280 days but world tension has to be >1% for Shadow Scheme.  Japan is 70 days earlier than that (210) with no extra conditions!  I think the US is longer, but they can get up to 6 Research Slots.  France starts with 3 but can get to 5 in 420 days.  USSR also starts with 3 and can get to 5 in 630 days.  Germany can't get their fifth Research Slot until December of 1937 (700 days)!

Considering that the fifth Research Slot is an effective 25% bonus to research for the rest of the game, which is significantly better than a lot of the other National Focus stuff, it doesn't seem to make much sense. 

[MadImmortalMan]

I fired up a game as Chile so I could watch the AI a bit. I didn't get to have my base at Hanga Roa because apparently Easter Island sank into the sea or something. 


AKA map sucks

[Zanza]

I played a game as Germany. I played fairly historical up to August 1939.

Went for the Low Countries and France right after Poland though instead of Denmark and Norway and could finish France in early 1940. Italy left Yugoslavia alone, so I joined the Finnish defensive war against the Soviet Union in May 1940 with all my ground troops. I used Hungarian troops to garrison Western Europe. I had disregarded Republican Spain which attacked me from the South and was an annoyance. Fighting the Soviets was a slugfest. The fronts barely ever encircle troops, you have to do that yourself with micro-management. I did win against the Soviets in late 1941, having taken everything to a line beyond Moscow, Stalingrad and all the way north. The Soviets never got any momentum on any of our frontlines. They had fought Japan and Finland when I started my invasion, so I guess a considerable part of their forces was tied up elsewhere.

Italy won in Africa (conquered everything except Morocco), Japan lost in China (barely holding on Korea and Vietnam). The Allies made like 50 small naval invasions in Normandy, in Spain, in Italy, in Vichy France etc. They broke out of their beachhead to take a province or two sometimes before I contained them. Some of the landings were with like 20 divisions, so an actual threat. But they never got air superiority somehow.

Production-wise, I am not sure what do with old equipment. When I build newer bombers or tanks or so, the old ones just go back to the pool and sit there. Also upgrading a dozen or so tank divisions from light to medium tanks leaves you with many unused light tanks. Do you then create half-mechanized divisions out of these?

My units fought so much and lost so many men that I never got any experienced units (except the two that I sent as volunteers to Spain early on). Not sure if that was due to me fighting such a slugfest in Russia.

I do understand how airforces work now although I am not sure I saw much of an effect in most cases.

I do not understand how navies work, especially naval combat. My entire Kriegsmarine unsuccessfully tried to hunt two Polish submarines for a year or so. But then sank the entire Soviet Baltic fleet with just two destroyers lost on my side. 

This game is missing a ledger.

Peace conferences are strange. Italy got a "Russian Empire" puppet in the north of Russia. Hungary got Nationalist Spain as a puppet. Both of them had not contributed much to the fighting. I get it when Japan wants its part of the spoils.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I played a bit as Italy now, but I guess I didn't build divisions and fighters fast enough in my built-up. I did easily conquer Yugoslavia and Egypt though, struggling with Greece, barely holding the line against France.

I consider to restart with what I learned but play Japan or Germany this time. Somehow I only like to play the Axis in HoI... 

Ditto. Except for when I purposely let the US slide into a Marxist-Leninist revolution which is then replaced by an ultra-right wing junta.