Hearts of Iron IV

[edyzmedieval]

6th of June 2016.

The new release in the Hearts of Iron franchise is slated to release tomorrow esentially - 6th of June 2016, 72 years after the D-Day.

Apparently it's exclusive only to Steam, so probably no physical release, but there are some interesting special edition packs over there!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/394360/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SMwEjVzzBY

[Hooahguy]

I decided to pre-order because... not sure why. Ill let everyone know how it is, but Ive been watching a bunch of the Youtubers who are streaming it and so far it looks really good! Have high hopes for this one, especially as its being fleshed out down the line.

[edyzmedieval]

Pass some impressions once you get to play it, I am very interested in purchasing it. It would be a new (almost) experience for me, so HoI IV is definitely on a to-buy list. :yes:

[Hooahguy]

Same here. Tried my hand at the HOI3 demo a long time ago but found it too daunting. A big complaint from the early review versions sent to youtubers that Im hearing though is that the AI just gets dumb at around 1942 and it gets way too easy once you have your economic infrastructure in place. It seems to suffer from the same problem that the TW games have: after a certain point you can just steamroll opponents. We will see how this is addressed. Also there is the concern that it is too easy to create coups in other countries but this I think can be somewhat easily remedied in a patch. The AI issue might be more difficult to address.

[I of the Storm]

I have high hopes for this title too. I'm a HoI 1 & 2 veteran, but could never get into HoI 3. Too complicated for me.
So that's why I hope no. 4 will be an improvement.

On the other hand, Paradox titles these days tend to be in a state of completion that others would call Early Access. Which isn't too much of a problem bc they continuously improve their games. See EUIV - between 1.0 and 1.17 ... it's a completely different game now.

Anyway, I'm holding off buying it on release. I'll wait for the first 1 or 2 patches.

[Hooahguy]

I had a bit of time to try to learn the ropes. Its still a very complicated game with a ton of moving parts that arent always so clear. Certainly will take more than 40 minutes to learn this game. The tutorial has you playing as Italy and their offensive in Ethiopia. Took way longer than expected to accomplish the objective. Probably because it was Italy. Also because I had no heavy support and minimal air support. Need to learn more about the economics as it said I was low on oil and stuff. Overall though the game plays smoothly, no glaring bugs but I didnt get much time in the game yet.

[Beskar]

This is what someone I know said about the game:

HoI4 is incredibly easy
It'll really shine in MP though
And with ahistory mods
I conquered the japanese mainland as new zealand 4 years into the game
They had all their troops fighting the soviet union in the depths of siberia with no manpower left
So I jsut went in with some marines
and they surrendered when i took tokyo because they had china as a puppet
I wish the UK had an unholy alliance option with Germany
To murder France, the USA and the SU
I must admit though, literally being Hitler is very amusing.
Its a fun game, but very little replayability.

[Hooahguy]

Strange, people on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/4mupeq/ai_smacked_me_currently_eating_my_hat/) are saying the opposite. Skill and familiarity with the game probably have something to do with it. Time will tell, Ill give it a week before I really evaluate the AI as the "new game" glow begins to wear off.

[Beskar]

Yeah, plus the fact they didn't really fight Japan.. it sounds more like backdooring the AI unexpectedly when they were being crushed by another AI.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Can't speak as to the mechanics yet (I've just clawed my way through the tutorial and am 20 minutes into my first proper campaign), but the soundtrack's been... interesting... so far. There's your usual atmospheric orchestral stuff you've come to expect from Paradox, but mixed in with it are some period standards and, uh, power metal. I'll admit that gave me a bit of a start when I first heard it firing up. :laugh4:

[I of the Storm]

That must be the (in)famous Sabaton part of the soundtrack. I'm not familiar with these guys but apparently they are quite popular among wargamers.

Anyway, the threads in the forum at paradoxplaza are quite evenly distributed between "great game", "What? How? Why? What's going on? What's this button doin'" and "WTF!? Game sux, is not like HoI3!!!1!"

It'll be an interesting week to follow the discussions.

[Husar]

I saw a review by someone who seems to know the series a bit better and he also said it's a bit too easy if you know a bit about what you're doing and that the AI makes silly mistakes.
In one example he played Germany and was allied with Italy. Italy was at war with communist Spain, which was an ally of Russia. Then Italy lend most of its army to Germany, which did not want to go to war with Spain because it was too early to annoy Russia. So Germany could not do anything against the Spanish troops conquering Italy's holdings in Africa while Italy had pretty much no army left since it gave most of these troops to Germany...
In addition the automatic fronts seem to get problems at times where the player needs to conquer remaining provinces manually and so on.

I'll definitely hold out on this one (partially because I need a new GPU first anyway), but can anyone tell me whether it has interface scaling for high DPI yet?

[edyzmedieval]

For those who played - what are the chances of actually winning the game with a small country? And how detailed is the small country, historically speaking, compared to the bigger ones?

[Hooahguy]

Im sure its possible if you are an experienced player, though Im having some issues as Sweden (figured their neutrality aspect would be a smart way to learn the ropes with little outside pressure) but the small industrial output size makes it hard to produce the materials needed to win. But then again I have no clue what Im doing so theres that.

[Beskar]

For those who played - what are the chances of actually winning the game with a small country? And how detailed is the small country, historically speaking, compared to the bigger ones?

From what I heard, Britain has the wrong Prime Minister.
I also heard "minor" countries like Yugoslavia have fictional leaders and generals.

[Hooahguy]

From what I heard, Britain has the wrong Prime Minister.
I also heard "minor" countries like Yugoslavia have fictional leaders and generals.
What do you mean that Britain has the wrong PM? Seems correct to me, as Churchill didnt take over until after both start dates.

And the minor countries arent fully fleshed out. I hope they fix that soon.

Also Ive been managing to hold out as Poland all the way to January 1941 so far. Mainly by doing a slow withdrawal to a pocket around Warsaw and Ive been holding there for a while now. Havent been able to break out, nor are the Germans throwing enough troops in to make me capitulate.

[GeneralHankerchief]

What do you mean that Britain has the wrong PM? Seems correct to me, as Churchill didnt take over until after both start dates.

Chamberlain is listed as the PM for the 1936 scenario when in reality Baldwin was still in power and didn't resign until 1937.

[Hooahguy]

Chamberlain is listed as the PM for the 1936 scenario when in reality Baldwin was still in power and didn't resign until 1937.
Ahh gotcha, didnt think of that. :book2:

[Beskar]

Ahh gotcha, didnt think of that. :book2:

Yup, Poor Stanley Baldwin.

[edyzmedieval]

How moddable is HoI in general? It is feasible to expect mods that introduce more micro-management like in HoI 3? (I heard HoI 3 was heavy on micro management)

[I of the Storm]

The extent of HoI 4's moddability remains to be seen. As a rule, PDX advertises heavily with the moddability of their games. How far that will go with the latest title - we'll see.

I expect many attempts at more micro'ing and command structure, but it's too early to say, I think.

[edyzmedieval]

Looking forward to the DLC packs and the updates from Paradox, hopefully there's something really good coming up in the expansions. :yes:

[Hooahguy]

So Ive mostly figured out how the economy works in my first full game as the US. Trade is annoying as you need dedicated factories so I find myself short of rubber oftentimes. Finally stockpiling for war so Im exciting to see how this turns out. I have like over 100 divisions ready to go. No idea how Im going to get them to the front though, havent figured out naval transport yet. Also I accidentally built like 300 carriers so Im trying to figure out how to disband most of them en masse. Or at least mothball them.

[Hooahguy]

The US got frustrating to play as since the whole "moving large numbers of troops overseas" got to be very annoying. Especially since Nationalist Spain took over the UK, leaving France somehow surviving a triple onslaught. Not sure what happened there. Still, it was a really good intro to how the economy and the navy works so it wasnt for nothing.

So I started a new game as the USSR. Now I just have to decide to invade Estonia or Finland. Probably will go for Estonia so I have more of a foothold in the Baltics.

[edyzmedieval]

Anyone playing with smaller countries?

[Hooahguy]

Anyone playing with smaller countries?

I've tried as Sweden and Poland if that's what you mean by small. Poland is pretty much non-defensible as one might imagine but if you can fight a withdrawal to a circle around Warsaw you can hold off the Germans once you fortify. Both times I've played Poland I managed to hold off the Germans indefinitely. I was basically a Polish island in a sea of Germans. After a while the Germans just surrounded me and stopped trying to take Warsaw so basically we just sat there. Probably because the other major wars had begun so it made no sense to throw soldiers at me especially when I had fortified Warsaw.

I didn't play Sweden for too long as I found it kinda dull. Their lack of industry makes building up forces pretty difficult, which goes for all of the small countries. Maybe once I get better at the game I'll try again with a smaller nation.

Also in my USSR game last night I rolled through the Baltics pretty easily. Signed the treaty with Germany so let's see what happens now. Will probably invade Poland once Germany invades to draw their forces from the border. Haven't decided what I will do about Finland. They are very heavily fortified and I don't know if I have the forces to avoid a repeat of history.

[Hooahguy]

I was tired of waiting for the Germans to invade Poland so I did it myself. It was surprisingly difficult as they were very fortified. My general strategy was to cut off pockets of Polish divisions and then starve them from supplies. For now Im stopped at the Bug River to consolidate my forces as they are kinda all over the place. Im not sure if I should press onto Warsaw or not as right now Im in a really defensible position and I know that the Germans are creating a war justification on me. There is a bug right now that is allowing German forces military access even though I didnt give it to them, though Im hearing that will be patched on Monday so we will see. So I might just stop where I am and fortify.

[edyzmedieval]

Does any of you have the Field Marshall Edition, the one with all the bonuses and future expansion packs?

[Hooahguy]

I was debating getting that one but then my wallet said no.

The hotfix is out today, and they havent fixed the military access bug. Might hold off on playing my USSR campaign until its fixed as its kinda a major bug.

[Hooahguy]

So I decided to work on my USSR campaign again. I took Warsaw and Poland capitulated. In the ensuing peace conference I managed to annex all of Poland so that was nice. Then Germany promptly declared war. Then my game basically slowed down to 1 FPS and I exited because I couldnt do anything with the game going at 1 FPS.

[Hooahguy]

So, fascist Greece is super fun to play as. About to launch an invasion of Bulgaria and then launch an assault on Ottomans to regain Europe's side of the Bosphorus.

[edyzmedieval]

Any further impressions on this? Did anyone pick it up during the Steam Summer Sale?

[I of the Storm]

Not yet. Still holding off. Relentless shitstorm in pdx-forum is frightening me.

[Hooahguy]

Apparently in the beta patch they kinda broke the AI or something.

[Beskar]

Any further impressions on this? Did anyone pick it up during the Steam Summer Sale?

Wasn't in any of the sales.

[I of the Storm]

Way too early. Stellaris got a minuscule discount during the sale, but even that is surprising, considering that it had been released in May.

[Veho Nex]

No matter the cost of the game I've been having a blast with it.

Played the tutorial up to 1942 as Italy and it was a great introduction to the game. There seem to be a lot of streamlined parts compared to HoI3 but it feels much more user friendly.

My first real game has been as USA. I've played very pro-democracy anti-communism right from the get go. I invaded Venezuela to replace the fascist dictator with a puppet of my own. This was in 1937. Jump forward to 1939. My land forces have suffered from under research and and poor design but my navies patrol the pacific with impunity. Japan jumps at me for war and I've got three massive navies off their coast within a week of dow. 6 Months later 10 infantry Divisions under Eisenhower and 12 Divisions (3 Medium Armor and 3 Heavy armor along with 6 Vet Infantry divisions from Venezuela) under Patton land on the Northern Edge of Japan. That landings and sudden push south are so fast and violent within 2 weeks Tokyo has been surrounded and they are pushing south with little resistance. I left off this morning when my men were finally stopped by the last desperate defense before Nagasaki falls.

On the Eastern side of the united states I held off on war with Germany for as long as I could. They unfortunately joined up against me right before I saved and I don't know if we'll be able to work together to take out the dirty commies. Only time will tell...

[Hooahguy]

Ive heard a lot of complaints about how easy it is to deal with Japan as the US. Most people Ive heard have had experiences similar to yours. They seem to get so caught up invading China that they neglect the Pacific.

[Csargo]

I just got the game and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for who I should play first. I haven't played HoI since the second, so any tips and whatnot are appreciated.

[Hooahguy]

I just got the game and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for who I should play first. I haven't played HoI since the second, so any tips and whatnot are appreciated.
A lot of people say Italy is a good first choice because you arent forced into conflict if you really dont want it, besides the small initial conflict you start with in Ethiopia. Others say Germany is a really good start too as they have a strong military and strong industrial base but Ive heard you are kinda forced into conflict and the pace of it isnt always up to you. If you want a good mix of the economy and military sides of the game I would go with those. If you just want to focus on learning the economy then I would go with the US as you are an isolationist and you could stay that course as long as you want. Brazil is also an option if you want to create your own little empire in South America.

[Csargo]

I'll probably give Brazil a try next or America, seems like a good choices to me.

I played a game as Venezuela earlier up until 1945 earlier. Carving up a little piece of South America for myself(Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) moving at a very slow pace trying to learn the game in my own little corner of the world. I probably won't play any further since any wars I start will bring the entire Allied force against me. The AI makes some really weird choices from what I've seen so far. Italy and Germany never really got off to any sort of start and were continually losing ground, which made me never join the Axis and merely go solo. All the while they were declaring the historical wars that actually happened. Germany seemed to be sending troops into the Pacific, because they were taking islands there. All the while losing their homeland. America joined the war and promptly did nothing during the entirety of it. The SU was at war with the Allies from 1939 for some reason, but I'm guessing it had something to do with their invasion of Poland. Now it's the Allies(who control all of Africa, Germany[except their holdings in the Pacific], and Italy) vs Japan vs SU, and the Americans are just chilling not doing anything.

[Hooahguy]

Yeah, the AI is a bit whack still. Give it a few more months, it should be mostly ironed out in a few patches.

[Csargo]

Can anyone explain how supply works? Is it purely based on infrastructure and equipment supply? Or are their other factors as well?

[Hooahguy]

Im not entirely sure to be honest. Try looking around for a supply tutorial on youtube or something.

[Csargo]

Finished a game as the United States earlier and destroyed the Fascist faction and then the Comintern. Germany stood the longest and was the toughest to take out, Japan and the Soviet Union were an easy campaign. Far superior production is basically what won the war for me. I had so much civilian and military industry that I was consuming basically all the trade resources I could without much effect to my civilian production. I was building infrastructure as my armies marched through Russia to supply my armies. I feel like America is quite over-powered, even with the Great Depression penalties.

Japan is far to focused on the mainland, and basically never attempted to invade my Pacific Islands even though they were barely defended most of the war. I could focus entirely on Germany and Italy in Europe with little care for the Pacific, except managing the two fleet I had patrolling there.

[Veho Nex]

So supply works on 3 points as far as I can tell.

First you have your home port/supply center. It then follows the path of highest infrastructure via land or from highest port to highest port via sea. Lastly you have the infrastructure of a province that prevents the army from taking attrition. I don't know exact numbers for what each level does but that's how I've seen it behave.

Incorrect:

Infrastructure determines how many units can sit in one province as far as I can tell. If you have something in Siberia with infrastructure 10 surrounded by a bunch of 1s it should still be able to sustain a pretty large army. If that army gets weakened it takes longer to return to full strength due to low supply incoming to army.

I noticed the above during an invasion of Japan from one of the islands the USA controls to its north. I only had a port of 3 with infrastructure of 10. I was able to sustain 4 large army groups that were ready to land and take Japan.


Edit: so after doing a little research I found that ports offer 3x their value in supply. So my port of 3 was actually supplying like it was 9. The real answer to that is:


Incoming supply is equal to the bottleneck (lowest value) on the best path from the capital including both the end supply area and the capital. Supply areas are connected with supply values as follows:

By land: Supply areas with a land adjacency. The value is the sum of:
0.5 times the square of the average infrastructure in the sending supply area. Capitals do not receive this factor.
2 times the square of the average infrastructure in the receiving supply area. Note that capitals get this value as "local" supply.

By sea: Supply areas with a sea connection. The supply value is 3 times the total naval base levels in the sending and receiving supply areas, whichever is lower.


Tank, equipment, supplies, mechanized, and motorized go either in surplus (which is where it goes if all units that use it are full of that item) or to units in production or to units in the field.

So when calculating your attack plan accordingly. It may be beneficial to hold off your war start till you have a sufficient stockpile of arms and armor.

[Gregoshi]

So when calculating your attack plan accordingly. It may be beneficial to hold off your war start till you have a sufficient stockpile of arms and armor.
Don't have the game, but I really like this concept.

The HoI games have intrigued me and still intrigue me enough to follow this thread, but not enough to purchase one yet.

[Veho Nex]

I really recommend HoI4 as the one to start your jump into the series. I think its simple enough for most new people to really grab a hold of and run with.

At the same time hold off on buying it for a few months till they work out most of the major annoyances.

[Csargo]

I agree with Veho, it's a really fun game and pretty easy to get the hang of, but if definitely needs some patching to fix the issues. It just needs some work to iron out some issues.

[Gregoshi]

Thanks for the tip. I'll add it to my Steam wishlist in the meantime...and I'll be watching this thread. :2thumbsup:

[Csargo]

The air warfare component of this game is extremely frustrating, and I hate it to no end.

[Veho Nex]

Yeah, I'm hoping we see some TLC for air and naval in upcoming DLCs and patches.

[Csargo]

I completed my first 'world conquest' game last night as Germany, and it was overall an enjoyable experience I'd say with a few exceptions. I took the Netherlands early because taking their rubber and oil in Indonesia is extremely useful, since Germany doesn't have either handy. The Soviets declared war on Poland, I was playing ahistorical so they claimed Eastern Poland, so I invited Poland into my faction and together we crushed the Soviets and Romania who joined the Comintern. Italy declared war on Greece and brought the Allies into the war, but weird stuff happened with France. Their color had turned the lighter blue of the French Commune, but they were fully democratic. I took France went through the Maginot Line and turned towards Yugoslavia and Greece and knocked them both out, but left Italy to deal with Africa with the exception that I helped take the Suez and Gibraltar. America joined the war and tried to invade Africa, but failed because AI Italy had 800+ divisions spread across Africa and Asia.

By this point the only major powers left were UK, America, and British Raj against my faction of Italy, Japan, Nationalist Spain, Finland, Poland, Belgium, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, and a few other minor nations. Trying to invade Britain through the English Channel was impossible because each time they would drop thousands of bombers and CAS into the channel and apparently having 8000+ fighters to their meager amount (a few hundred) means all my convoys sink. I eventually invaded through Ireland and Scotland to knock them out of the war. I couped both America and British Raj with astounding success, then knocking out both in short order afterwards. I enjoyed the game immensely, but the game has brought to light a few glaring issues to me.

1. I think bombers, cas, and naval bombers are far more effective than they should be. It doesn't make sense when I have overwhelming air superiority that they can easily drop a bunch of those planes into and area and destroy my ships then leave only having lost a few hundred planes. I've lost so many ships to naval bombers just striking ports that I honestly hate having to build ships in this game honestly. An Italy game I played my huge navy was destroyed in port by British naval bombers when I controlled the skies around the area. I don't know if anyone else has had similar experiences, but it is just extremely annoying.

2. The AI does not seem to understand supply at all from what I've seen. Going to fight the British Raj the Italians and Japanese had stacked hundreds of troops along the narrow border that I could do nothing against them. Massive attrition and organization loss when going anywhere near the border. I eventually just couped them and sailed troops into the new land.

3. I went down the befriend Scandinavia NF tree and had no intention of going to war with any of them, no justifying or anything like that, and they all joined the Allies, with the exception of Norway and Finland who joined me when the Soviets declared war on them. It left me extremely confused for them to join the allies for seemingly no reason outside of world tension I guess.

Sorry for the long reply, but just wanted to get my thoughts down and see if others were experiencing the same things. Overall, in my opinion the game is extremely fun, especially trying to take a minor nation and make them a world power.

[ShadesWolf]

I have to admit Im not overly impressed. Im finding it a long hard learning curve.
I hated HOI3, and almost straight away went back to my trusted Hoi2. Which I understand and enjoy. For Hoi to Hoi2 was an easy conversion, almost zero learning time.
Ive tried quite a few times to give 4 a go, but im struggling with it, and again i find myself going back to 2.
Im struggling with air combat, and putting generals in armies. I can move my armies about easily enough but dislike the 'theater' idea, or should i say i dont understand the theater idea.

[edyzmedieval]

For the moment I'm still sticking with HoI 3, purchased two more DLC packs with the Paradox weekend the other day, so I'm aiming to finish HoI 3 first, at least a campaign with an easier faction like Great Britain, before I delve in the depth of HoI IV. 4

That being said, I hope they do keep the Field Marshall Edition still on order because it has a ton of extras. Including future expansions.

[edyzmedieval]

Now that this has been out for some time - and even for the first time I believe on sale on Steam - how's it working?

[Hooahguy]

I really should pick it up again, I had a blast over the summer when I played.

[Csargo]

I really should pick it up again, I had a blast over the summer when I played.

Same here, I enjoyed it a lot over the summer. Haven't played since they patched it, plus the steam reviews for the expansion were pretty negative iirc.

[Hooahguy]

So I picked it up again, and played a good bit as Greece again. Maintained neutrality for the longest time until it got boring (around 1943 I think). Waged a bloody war with Italy for control of the Balkans. And then I staged an invasion of Italy with a massive paratroop drop. In the end Italy capitulated which was awesome for me. But here is the biggest problem with the game- once I beat Italy to a pulp, there was no way to try to end the war as I was at war with Germany and Japan. I mean all I really wanted in the end was to have control of the Balkans. Why bother with having specific war goals if the only thing that matters in the end is the total capitulation of the enemy? Especially since Italy was part of the Axis, I also had to fight Germany and Japan. I could deal with fighting Germany, it was dealing with Japan that sucked. Greece is hardly a naval power so now I am basically in a never ending war as I dont really have the capability to send forces overseas to fight them.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

My son and a group of pals are playing all 4 games in sequence to start the next game based on the results of the previous one.

Unfortunately for them, my son has been following an endgame strategy based on the conditions in Hearts of Iron from day one of game one. He's doing well now, though not by a commanding margin as they begin game two....but his strategic position and resource set up for game four are gonna make him almost unstoppable even if they league against him.

[Montmorency]

My son and a group of pals are playing all 4 games in sequence to start the next game based on the results of the previous one.

Unfortunately for them, my son has been following an endgame strategy based on the conditions in Hearts of Iron from day one of game one. He's doing well now, though not by a commanding margin as they begin game two....but his strategic position and resource set up for game four are gonna make him almost unstoppable even if they league against him.

You mean Crusader Kings-EU-Victoria-Hearts of Iron, or just Hearts of Iron 1-4? I imagine the latter is kind of a pointless exercise.

[Husar]

Does that even work now? I tried a converter on my Victoria 2 savegame once to load it into HoI 3, but the result was not pretty:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/539630447620637227/D5398A590E1E159DA6DB6D9DC6F3BD48034B39D3/

In case you're wondering about my point, it turned Germany into Guyana and my Chile was basically completely empty and unplayable. :no:

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The former of course. (reply to monty)


Husar, I have never played any of the games in the sequence. My son has voiced no concern. Perhaps recent updates have improved the sequencing?

[edyzmedieval]

There's a new expansion pack coming out that will deal with Eastern European countries, which makes it all of a sudden super tempting to buy HoI IV. :yes:

[Hooahguy]

A lot of people are angry that the free stuff they are adding isnt nearly on par with the free stuff they do for EU4, and the paid content is stuff that should have been in the base games and not behind DLC. I kinda agree. Also the AI had gotten so frustratingly stupid that I had to stop playing. That combined with how you cant fight short wars and are stuck in really big wars that are impossible to win if you are a minor nation. Like how I drove Italy and the Germans out of the Balkans but I couldnt offer peace terms because the major powers havent capitulated. Never mind that I had been killing four Italians for every fallen Greek. Drove me mad even though I had fun overall.

[edyzmedieval]

Paradox is working on those, I mean from the effort they're putting into it, patches, fixed, free content and paid content will eventually bring the game to a level that at least most people want. Let's keep in mind that HoI IV will have quite a long development time based on the fact that it's due at least one more expansion pack.

Not to mention other DLCs and content packs.

[Csargo]

I'll probably wait until all the expansions/ patches come before I play again. I really hope they expand the NF's for minor nations, if they haven't already.

[edyzmedieval]

I finally bought HoI IV, out of mistake more like it than not. Cadet Version and will purchase the DLC for Eastern Europe.

I'm fine with it, overall. I like the presentation, it looks sleek. What really disappointed me is the lack of incremental upgrades for the army, like an improved version for the tank that you already have. You have to simply upgrade to a totally new tank, when it might not actually be that feasible. :shame:

I really loved that feature in HoI III.

[Beskar]

You can do incremental upgrades called "Variants" where you can boost the various aspects of the design, so they do more damage or more speed, etc.

[edyzmedieval]

But this requires Army Experience, which is in short supply.

[Csargo]

Training gives you a small amount of army experience per month.

[Csargo]

There's also focuses that give you army experience as well, maybe volunteer/expeditionary forces give you some as well iirc.

[edyzmedieval]

It does, and training definitely does help. But it depletes your armies, it needs manpower and it needs supplies.

[Csargo]

I didn't realize it drained manpower as well, thought it was just supplies.

[edyzmedieval]

6% attrition.

[Csargo]

As far as I can tell the 6% attrition only effects equipment and not manpower, at least according to the wiki. The wiki seems to be outdated though, so maybe one of the recent patches changed it? From what I remember training only effected equipment, but I could be remembering that wrong.

[Beskar]

That combined with how you cant fight short wars and are stuck in really big wars that are impossible to win if you are a minor nation.

That has always been Hearts of Irons. I doubt it will be fixed.

[edyzmedieval]

Can someone give me some tips please?

I'm playing as USA and I'm struggling - keep in mind I'm quite new to HoI series and I'm not experienced. The Japanese have taken even Hawaii and it seems that my navy can not keep up with the constant fighting. I do everything right in terms of research / production / development but not in tactics.

Also - my allies are leaving me to do the fighting.

Plus - Destroyers can't go over the Pacific Ocean but they can over the Atlantic - what? Why not?

[Beskar]

Depends on tech level. HoI series is very annoying like that, I wish there were no restrictions or if restrictions actually made sense.

[edyzmedieval]

How do you block exports? They're eating up my factories for building.

[Beskar]

How do you block exports? They're eating up my factories for building.

Exports don't use your factories? or I didn't think they did. I know Imports do.

To block exports, you change your economy type to "closed" and this allows you to keep a bigger chunk of your resources opposed to putting them on the market for other powers to use. For imports, you chose and set these yourself, if you need a lot of resources due to lack of native resources, you will need to build more civilian factories or conquer some rich provinces.

I doubled checked. When you are exporting, you actually gain factory capacity, as the nation importing pays for it using the factories.
"Resources can be bought with the production capacity generated by civilian factories, meaning the resource-producing nation will receive factories in exchange for their exported resources"
"In practice, trade laws set a flat percentage of resources for export as well as side bonuses from trade in increased factory output, construction speed, and research speed"

So yes, you must be importing, and if so, you are paying for the resources with factories. So the solution is that you need to change your production, so require less resources, or to increase your factory amount.

[edyzmedieval]

Exports don't use your factories? or I didn't think they did. I know Imports do.

To block exports, you change your economy type to "closed" and this allows you to keep a bigger chunk of your resources opposed to putting them on the market for other powers to use. For imports, you chose and set these yourself, if you need a lot of resources due to lack of native resources, you will need to build more civilian factories or conquer some rich provinces.

Both do now, which is a problem that I want to solve but I can't except by changing economy.

[Csargo]

I thought exports gave you civilian factories? Is that not the case anymore? Yeah, the only way to stop that would be closing your economy.

As far as fighting the Japanese goes, you basically have to island hop across the Pacific, which is somewhat annoying. Take an island, re-base your navy and army, and do it all over again. You should be able to out produce Japan, depending on how you built up your economy early game. I'll try to answer any specific questions you have, but my knowledge of the game is a bit outdated. :sweatdrop:

[Csargo]

Are any of the expansions/DLCs worth buying? Seems like most reviews are negative in regards to them.

[Csargo]

Also, the AI still sends forces into the middle of nowhere, while they lose their homeland. Both Germany and Italy have dozens of divisions fighting in mainland China with Japan while they were both being captured by the Allies/Comintern. Good times.

[Hooahguy]

The main issue Im seeing with the DLCs is that they really dont offer much compared to their price. $10-$15 for a bunch of new focus trees and some things which should have been in the base game anyways? No thanks.

Ive heard that they are making major plans for the next update, like restructuring how field marshals work so they arent just generals who can command more units and adding more decisions to the game. So we will see when the update eventually comes if I will pick it back up or not.

[Csargo]

The main issue Im seeing with the DLCs is that they really dont offer much compared to their price. $10-$15 for a bunch of new focus trees and some things which should have been in the base game anyways? No thanks.

Ive heard that they are making major plans for the next update, like restructuring how field marshals work so they arent just generals who can command more units and adding more decisions to the game. So we will see when the update eventually comes if I will pick it back up or not.

Yeah, that's what I've been seeing as well, they aren't worth what they change in-game. I've just been playing minor nations recently, my current game as Mongolia:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1127259991

[edyzmedieval]

Been some time since posts were made on this thread - but in the meantime, HoI IV has been upgraded extensively and some good DLC came out. :yes:

However, careful with the DLC's - a lot of the features should have been in the base.

[Csargo]

Is it worth playing the base game? I don't particularly want to spend money on DLCs honestly, since a lot of them, like you said, should have been in the base game.

[edyzmedieval]

If you can get it on sale, definitely yes. However... a lot of base features are only in DLCs and if you love micromanagement like I do, the Man the Guns DLC for naval expansion and obsessive micromanagement is necessary.

[Csargo]

If you can get it on sale, definitely yes. However... a lot of base features are only in DLCs and if you love micromanagement like I do, the Man the Guns DLC for naval expansion and obsessive micromanagement is necessary.

I've got the base game just not installed anymore, somewhere around ~100 hours played. I stopped playing because I mostly liked playing minor nations, but it felt like some features just made it impossible to win without the production power of the major nations. I might install it again and see if I can get some of the DLCs when they're on sale.

[Hooahguy]

My issue with the game was that you couldnt do small wars because they would just bring in a bigger power at some point and make it impossible to win. For example I was playing as Greece with the aim of staying as a neutral regional power. I invaded one of my neighbors, might have been Albania. When I invaded they were not allied with Germany but quickly afterwards they joined an alliance with them and Germany entered the war on their side. I conquered my initial goal but it ground to a stalemate since nobody could make any gains. The most frustrating part was that there was no way to end the war except with either a white peace, me surrendering, or fighting my way through Germany to force them to capitulate which isnt going to happen as Greece. I eventually pushed Germany back to the point where I had conquered all of Albania but because Germany had not capitulated, the war wasnt going to end. Maybe this was fixed later, but I feel that if the main target country capitulates in cases like these then the war should have an option for a negotiated ending.

[edyzmedieval]

Playing as small nations, unless you have a dedicated tech tree (Romania fortunately has one, and a very detailed one too, if you get the DLC), it's not that fun to play as.

I played as Canada with a dedicated tech tree, and while it was fun, by 1945 the whole thing was a stalemate with 3000 airplanes on each side battling it out while the ground forces were locked down.