Hearts of Iron 2

[Butcher]

Anyway played this? I've just bought it (it's waiting for on my doorstep at home ) and it seems very promising from what I've read.

[Pausanias828]

I got hold of it about a month ago, but have only spent about an hour playing it so far, as I haven't had a lot of time for games recently, especially one which requires a certain amount of thinking. It does look very good from the manual, and the little bit I have played of it, in fact, as I should get some time over the bank holiday, I will probably fire it back up, and have another go at it.

I have liked the previous Paradox games that I have played of the same style, particularily EU II.

[ichi]

I tried HOI when it first game out but it was a little buggy. The devs spent a lot of time fixing those bugs.

I looked at HOI II but haven't purchased it yet, so I'd be interested in hearing your review of it.

ichi

[UglyandHasty]

It's basically the same soup as HOI. They add a few things, renames another few... They add things like rebellion that have increase the micro-management, so if you dont like to mm, dont buy it. Tech tree is changed a little, sometime for the best, sometime for worst, not enough depth imo. It run fine though, no crash or apparent flaw.

Personnaly i am a little disapointed, but not enough to throw it by the windows or stop playing it. Why ? They are already working on their 3rd patch.

[ShadesPanther]

Some of it is more micromanagement which is sad, other things have been made less MM like convoys (automated) The new provinces are nice as it allows more smaller encirclements and breakthroughs as well as making defending against the Soviets in winter quite hard. They also have a reinforcements so you have to divert some industry away for them.
The upgrades are also improved that when new technolog comes online you can upgrade your units in the field (although the infantry divisions upgrading can be a nightmare). One really big improvement is the Tech teams, enabling realistic research for countries (ie a landlocked power like tibet cannot become a naval powerhouse.) this also means no fighter jets or nukes in 1940 (I know about jet planes being possible in 1940). Brigades are also a very nice touch with more attchments available than in HOI1
The good news is that naval battles and the airforces have been fixed which means more fun with Japan than in HOI1.
Overall very good and an improvement on HOI but does need a bit of fixing in places. It is at 1.2 patch and CORE is curently being developed (The ultimate more for HOI1)

[Kraxis]

Happy to hear the regions are now smaller... I always fought WWI style in HOI, full head on assault and basically no encirclements as I never had enough motorized or mechanized troops to attempt it (had planned to break through with tanks, plug the gaps with motorized and follow the tanks with mechanized, but the demands were immense), when I tried I ran myself into the ground with the war with the Soviets, no fuel after a few days. By the way have they made a more significant difference between tanks and mechanized infantry? I always thought the mechanized troops to be weaker versions of tanks, not really a correct version.

Brigades better? Explain... I usually just kept up with artillery and engineers (a few anti tanks).

Good to hear the naval and air battles are better, they always seemed impossible. Especially the air battles, it was nigh impossible to destroy enemy aircrafts, even with overwhelming superiority. But explain further.

How about intelligence? I never got the hang of that, just got a tech now and then, and basically ignored the tech part about army intel, unless it advanced the techtree.

But explain everything, tech teams? Reinforcements?

[discovery1]

Heats of Iron 2 is the best game I have played in recent memory.

Brigades better? Explain... I usually just kept up with artillery and engineers (a few anti tanks).

Well, now you have more of them. Arty, self-propelled arty, anti-tank, sp anti-tank, engineer, police, and more. They can also be moved from division to division(Huge improvement)

How about intelligence? I never got the hang of that, just got a tech now and then, and basically ignored the tech part about army intel, unless it advanced the techtree.

Why? It would give you a clearer picture of what the enemy had in the field. Intelligence didn't have much impact on getting techs, and still doesn't. Will give a clearer pic of what the enemy has on the field, and makes surprises more/less likely.

But explain everything, tech teams? Reinforcements?

Each country has tech teams that they assign to various research projects. Eacg team has areas where they specialize, and has a certain still level.

The rate of reinforcement can be controlled by assigning less than the needed amount of ICs to them. No more hitting a button and the division goes up to full strength instantly(at the cost of organization)

[Kraxis]

Sounds good... The game has obviously advanced. Especially great about the reinforcements, it was really anoying when enemy fighters could suddenly pop up with full strength after you have finally driven them down to single digits. GAH! But now it will also be harder fighting the Russians.

No more resources or stretegic resources (such as special metals and so on)?

I never involved myself in the intel because I never saw any advantages when I did. I captured a few techs, but never anything important, and I could see what the enemy had on their frontlines, so tactically it was never a problem. Especially since I had to do the broard front attacks.

[Boohugh]

No more resources or stretegic resources (such as special metals and so on)?

There are 6 resources: energy, metal, rare materials, oil, supplies and $$$'s. I don't know if this has changed from the original because I never played it. You need the first three for your factories, oil and supplies for your military units and money for diplomatic actions.

Because I never played the original I don't know how much of an improvement it is, and so the only recommendation I can give it is that it's one of only 2 games I've been playing recently (the other being Trackmania Sunrise), and I've enjoyed it immensely, so much so that it has already taken a place in my top 10 favourite games.

[discovery1]

Especially since I had to do the broard front attacks.

'Had to?' What country did you tent to play as? As Germany I found concentrated breakthroughs and encirclements essential.

[Kraxis]

'Had to?' What country did you tent to play as? As Germany I found concentrated breakthroughs and encirclements essential.

Germany... I simply couldn't starve my other provinces of the forces, so instead of feeding a growing battle I obviously couldn't win (I made that mistake too many times trying to take Paris or London early in the invasions) I would attack over a broad front forcing the enemy to either converge on a few places (where I would fall back but win in the other battles) or fight these many small battles where my airforces would rip them to shreds.
France of course is a special case as they generally tended to glog the gap in the Maginot line very well with masses of infantry and quite a few tanks (often more than I had in all) And they would never enter Belgium and get suckered into a Dunkerque.

LordHugh, in the old game you had Coal, Steel, Oil and Rubber (and Diplomatic points as well as supplies). You had your IC points (Germany had about 260 points, but that would increase a whole lot fast) which determined how much industry you had, each point used 2 Coal, 1 Steel and ½ Rubber. Oil was essential for military of course, but if you didn't have enough (as Germany and most other European powers didn't have) you could convert coalt to oil which in turn could be converted into rubber. Damn, the number of wars I started to just get a few more oil points, such as attacking Albania or 'stealing' colonies in Africa.
So I see the game as mroe or less the same. Coal is obviously Energy, Metal is Steel and rare metals are rubber (makes more sense too). But since the shift has been most dramatic in rare metals I can see some interest in Europe again, instead of the big colonial empires (who floated on oil and rubber), many small countries has rare metals, like nikkel (isn't that differently spelled in English?) in Finland or Molybdenum in east central Europe. So I guess it should be more evenly spread, and more fair.

[Butcher]

Well i've been playing it a bit now, and sheesh it's immense.. very enjoyable so far though..

[Kraxis]

I bought the game and got to it as Germany obviously.
Everything initially went my way (good old Hitler playing the big game), but something went wrong with the Czechs and war erupted when I wasn't prepared for it (I had my armies all over the place). A couple of other things also went wrong and I was essentially losing the game even before it began... I was surprised how fast it could turn on you. In HOI a war with the Czechs was no problem. So I reloaded an autosave and made preperations for war, this time it didn't happen, and I split with Hungary.
The war with Poland came and I was doing great, catching their only HQ division in a pocket with a large portion of their troops. But then it happened, the thing I dreaded the most... France attacked!

Can you believe it? They made an offensive into Freiburg, 23 divisions against my measly 3... Rats! My men fell back before the onslaught as I scrambled to fransfer troops from the north down to meet it, but it wasn't going to be enough, my armies were in Poland (where I was suddenly meeting very stiff resistance near Warsaw). Even worse I had the Altmark incident there, gearing the English to become more active.
Then I planned the downfall of France, it was going to be a very elaborate plan. I had only 3 divions in Friedrichshaven, but plenty behind it and to north. I lured the French to continue the attack, and they fell for it, attacking the weak forces in Friedrichshaven which fell back at once. Now was the time to attack Freiburg.

I sent 3 tankdivision to attack Freiburg assisted by an HQ army (HQ division, some infantry and some motorized), the few french forces fled fast and my tanks arrived early. The French now saw their predicament and tried of all their power to attack my Panzerkorps in Freiburg with all their had, no less than 32 divisions attacked me, but I intereupted the attack from Friedrichshaven by attcking that with the encircling forces. The plan was not to win that battle but to save my tanks until help arrived.

My planes that had been transferred from Poland were flying Interdiction all the time and helped the tanks greatly. Finally the last French broke off the attack and I 23 divisions (including their sole tank division as well as half their Mountaineers) in the bag. France gave up at that point planning their defence alogn the Maginot line. But sadly I couldn't jump at the advantage as my forces were still in Poland or on their way. When they arrived it was winter and I settled down to upgrade my troops and wait for spring.

Sadly Fall Weserübung happened with me having no troops ready so I had to ignore Scandinavia.

My worst setback came at sea... My mighty fleet lead by Scharnhorst and all my heavy cruisers, supported by all my light cruisers and all my modern destroyers entered a battle out by Rockall. They won it and sunk a few small French ships, but then big brother entered the game. A mighty fleet of BBs and BCs attacked my fleet and in several engagements (while I was furiously trying to retreat) annihilated it. Now I had only one destroyer squadron, Bismarck and the two old BCs in the east. Even my submarines were getting blasted out of the water, sinking a few transports and escorts.
In my fury I planned masses of new submarines, and the next time I took to the sea Dönitz gave an English ASW patrol a good licking, sinking a CL and a DD.

This is my position now. Precarious at sea and strong at land (though the French are gearing up after their disasterous defeat) and fearful of the Soviets (who have just won the Winter War after initial losses of land to the Finns). Only Hungary is my ally, but Italy is coming around and so is Rumania and Bulgaria. I need to defeat France fast...

[King Edward]

Sounds like yor having a great game Kraxis! I am in may 1943 in my game (As the UK) and the only action that has happened was the spanish civil war. Germany hasnt even attacked poland yet! so i stopped playing cos i got bored. Might try again though as it sounds a grat game once you get going!

[UglyandHasty]

In my game right now i am playing the Soviet Union. Its fall 42 and i am about to annex Sweden. I am still at peace with Germany, he dont dare attack i think. Wise move as i outnumbered him in armored division 2/1 and infantry 3/1. I have Annex Finland in 40, and immediatly release them as a puppet. Its my goal in this game to annex all Europe(Balkan included), and create puppets. Right after Sweden i'll declare war to Norway, wich is on Allies side. That will put some fire in the game. Because nothing move so far. Germany stop everything after France, Japan didnt try to invade China(first time i see that), Italy is still neutral.

*edit typo

[SwordsMaster]

yup, my game is also strangely quiet WWII-wise. Its year 42 now and Im playing Japan: Ive annexed Mongolia, Tannu uma (or something like that) and almost half USSR is under the boots of my soldiers (and Im only researching the airborne assault now MWAHAHAHA! ) The US keep sending supplies to the russians but I have a 180+relationship with them and UK (I bought Hong Kong from them and Macao from the portuguese as well as a few pointless possessions in Britanny and Normandy from the germans, just for the fun of it mainly...)

Now my advance against the USSR is slowing down as Im crossing absolutely undeveloped areas with nothing in them except divisions I keep beating back. I'm allied with Siam and whatever the country that starts as my ally, and I let them keep my border safe.

I have 3 big aerial armies (2 bombers, 1 fighter) and a few smaller ones including transports and naval bombers in every single province with a bit of coast. I have 4 huge navies of 30+ capital ships 3-4 carriers, battleships, etc... and 3 fleets of 20+ submarines that arent as effective as the germans but do the job against crappy russian ones. As the airborn assaullt thinghy has to be developed in less than a month now, Im going to blitz the russian oil producer locations and hopefully some industries. Its kinda hard to keep going though as the distance from Japan is massibe and it takes me months to prepare for every push and move my frontline another "line" to the west.

The germans in the mantime are already further than Stalingrad and the russians will be lef with no space in no time.

My biggest rival in asia is Nationalist China now. They've annexed ommunist China and now are amassing huge armies on our border, and I doubt my troops will be able to hold it if the invasion begins. Luckily I still have the control of the skies. Noone i except Germany has as many planes as I have ATM.

[TheJian]

You guys ever think about modding this game to make its like MTW or RTM?.even STW????? I have HOI 1&2 cant understand 2 thatw ell need to spend more time with it looks to be deeper than HOI 1....

[ShadesPanther]

My biggest rival in asia is Nationalist China now. They've annexed ommunist China and now are amassing huge armies on our border, and I doubt my troops will be able to hold it if the invasion begins. Luckily I still have the control of the skies. Noone i except Germany has as many planes as I have ATM.

Very nice, Although Nationalist china will be a big threat, Even when its spring 1939 and I have most of the north and some of the south every so often they can punch a hole through my line but I gain it back and inflict huge loses on them. The main tip is to annex nationalist china as soon as possible because if the minors lose land it will becoe nationalist territory. Soon I will have to prepare for the allies and the Americans, the main plan will be to capture the important islands like Midway, Guam, wake and Hawai for a naval base. Crush the american navy and take the Panama canal as well as all the nice oil and rare material areas and maybe Australia if I have the men during a push through India.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Latest (modded to make units be produced faster) game:
me AUstria.
Allience with Hungary
Chech split between me and Hungary
Me have bohemia
them have slovakia.
Im going to own Serbia soon.
Then build up a sphere of influence in China.
Then Im going to start reasearching nukes
then hit moskow.

[SwordsMaster]

Very nice, Although Nationalist china will be a big threat, Even when its spring 1939 and I have most of the north and some of the south every so often they can punch a hole through my line but I gain it back and inflict huge loses on them. The main tip is to annex nationalist china as soon as possible because if the minors lose land it will becoe nationalist territory. Soon I will have to prepare for the allies and the Americans, the main plan will be to capture the important islands like Midway, Guam, wake and Hawai for a naval base. Crush the american navy and take the Panama canal as well as all the nice oil and rare material areas and maybe Australia if I have the men during a push through India.

LOL Yesterday bought Guam from the US. It did cost me a ton of supplies though...

Anyway, it doesnt appear like the allies are a threat to me now. I leave their possessions alone for the moment. In case of trouble, I can annex french vietnam quickly and thanks to my owning Hong Kong I can hurt badly all the Dutch and British possessions all the way to India. Dont have the ships to do it yet though. Im building another armada to stay in Hong Kong now. And also a few airborne divisions are being deployed in Macao, in case Nationalist China finally plays it rough...

ATM I have the best infantry, marines and airborne of the game (all of them are year43 models and Im barely in 42 and researching). So I have the hope I could hold them back long enough as to turn around my USSR offensive.

[Kraxis]

Well, I beat France in the spring offensive of 1940, started 6:00am 3. of April, France caved in at 11:00am 18. of April and we got Vichy going (weren't they supposed to be my puppet?). I have placed all my fighters and interceptors on the channel coast to beat back the damn brits (they won't stop sending in bombers to bomb my troops) and my Heinkel 111s are ripping the British navy a new one. They have already sunk 3 carriers and 3 BBs as well as numerous DDs and CLs and of course a few CAs.

But my greatest personal success was when Dönitz went out to interdict some convoys with 6 Type VII submarines. He had little luck in the Western Aproaches, sinking a few transports and escorts (that is strange for I'm sinking about 1:2 in terms of transports to escorts, even with my planes), but then the evil British strike force that crushed my surface fleet emerged out of the mist, Ark Royal leading the way for Nelson, Rodney, Royal Oak and a host of smaller ships (plenty of cruisers). I was about to retreat my subs when I noticed that the destroyers were not in range, so my subs only had to fight the CLs directly. After a long battle all but Royal Oak and Ajax had been sunk, my losses were nothing. Ahh the pleasure of giving the punch back.
But sadly before this I had suffered another great reverse at sea when my planes had attacked a British fleet of old BCs and CLs. I was sure Bismarck, the newly rebuilt Scharnhorst and the two old BCs could easily do away with this, so they went to sea. But sadly they couldn't find them (despite being in the same zone), pressing matter brought me back to the land and I forgot about them. Suddenly my planes were attackign an enemy in the zone again and I took a look.

GASP!!!!
A fleet containing carriers, battleships and battlecruisers in massive numbers, I tried to flee before they noticed my ships, but alas too late. The Brits had noticed my little fleet and in the ensuing battle only Bismarck managed to limp home, heavily damaged. Scharnhorst had been sunk twice in the span on half a year. I was furious... I effectively gave the command of Hitler to only build submarines (but I did commission another two BCs).

I have released Flanders and Wallonia, Belgium was simply too much of a drain on my garrisons.
And in Poland I'm gearing up for the war. I have luckly got two footholds on the eastern side of the original treatyline, they make for perfect jumppoints for my panzers to create three great pockets, containing together about 60 divisions (out of about 200 right now). It will be vital to get them as I'm outnumbered 2:1 in infantry and motorized infantry, luckly I'm superior in tanks (9 divs of Panzer III with the Panzer IV on the way soon) and plenty of good supporting brigades, such as StuH 42, basic artillery, engineers and Marder IIs.

But first I need to get Italy into the alliance, but they are tough diplomats and I'm running low on money. I need them to contain the Brits while I invade the rest of Europe (well, the balkans at least), and I really need the blueprints they have, for I fear I might not be able to hold my tech advantage for much longer. As soon as I have Italy on my side I will invade Yugoslavia and possibly Greece, perhaps then Bulgaria and Rumania will join too. And then the invasion of the Soviet Union will be much easier.

[Kraxis]

Oh yeah, Japan has wiped the floor with Nationalist China and the other smaller Chinas. I actually started my save game as them to see what was going on, and I was able to beat back the Japanese quite fast because the chinese armies were able to retreat into allied lands (they have perhaps 5 provinces left themselves), and now they threaten the Japanese flanks. So perhaps China might be able to do the same... If only they had the guts to attack along the whole line. The Japanese are severely overstreched and they should be folding as soon as that happens... But I doubt the Chinese are that brave, at least in my game.

At least the Russians are keeping a sizeable part of their armies in the east. And every day they march into the future pockets with more troops... Great potential for me.

[TheJian]

Ok i wouldlike to know this...I have seen you cant play someone else when you start thegame over is this for MP or just so you can see what the AI is doing?

[SwordsMaster]

MWAHAHAHA! Just had to share it. Germany and I have annexed the USSR completely, its literally split into 2 halves (with me getting Siberia, hmpf... ) and by giving away a few strategically located provinces I managed to get China to declare war on Germany. the thing is, China owns a very long corridor along my new russian border and I have a fewarmies of 10+ divisions along that border so I can shut it down at any time.

Right now its June 43 and Im preparing a major invasion for spring 44: 2 big navies are getting ready in the Tokyo Docks, marine divisions are getting upgraded, and 15 para-divisions are getting training along with a few transports and bombers.

My industrial capacity went from 100 in 36 to 189 in 43 and there are a few more ICs getting build...

I just dont really know where to direct my attack. South west into China or west into USSR Germany. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but as I said Im going to wait till spring and see who has the upper hand between Germany and China, and make the best out of it.

I will make the world speak Japanese and watch Pokemon!!!

EDIT: Update:

The MArch 44 offensive was directed into China´s heart. The capital was taken in 7 hours via airborne. At the same time marine divisions landed in Shangai and 3 other major ports while my 18 divisions hi tech army advanced from the north supported by the bombers that wiped out the small divisions that were away from the main direction of my attack and my battlefleets sunk 5 chinese ships + 4 transports in the first day.

Long story short, the Chinese offered peace in 2 days. I got a much more consistent border with them, and a few other provinces that will allow me to form easy pockets for my eventual expansion into German USSR. I now control continuous land from Kamchatka to Afghanistan. The power of CHina in the world has been crippled for a while.

[Kraxis]

Ok i wouldlike to know this...I have seen you cant play someone else when you start thegame over is this for MP or just so you can see what the AI is doing?

You can start an SP savegame as any other nation. So that was what I did, mainly to see what was going on in the rest of the world, or rather in this case to see what the chinese and japanese were doing. As it happened Japan annexed China not so long afterwards, so apparently they didn't attack like I would have done.

[ShadesPanther]

or there is a cheat(but I don't really see it as a cheat) to see the world I use it because I had the option to see everything in HOI1 and I just don't really like the fog of war in Hoi2.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

press F12 and then type nofog

[Butcher]

Actually, this is turning into one of the best games I have played, ever.

[SwordsMaster]

Ok, could someone please explain me how exactly inteligence works?

Because the manual didnt shed much light on it and I moved homes since, and only brought the cd to the new one. You know, college residences arent too spacious...

[ShadesPanther]

with the fog of war the reliability of the divisions facing you will be greater. Ie if it says 2? with out intellegence it might say 3 and will be more accurate

I recommend the HOI2 wikki for most of your questions click me

[SwordsMaster]

with the fog of war the reliability of the divisions facing you will be greater. Ie if it says 2? with out intellegence it might say 3 and will be more accurate

I recommend the HOI2 wikki for most of your questions click me

Cheers mate!

Not that I actually needed it to conquer the world!