Hearts of Iron II Doomsday

[Avicenna]

They go towards interventionism? Interesting. I think it's time to guarantee Poland, Denmark and co... my anti-interventionism really stinks, it has to be said. Around 12% dissent when I DoW, as I'm halfway between authoritarian and democratic.

[AggonyDuck]

Well the slider move only happens when the the Guaranteed country and the one doing the Guaranteeing have their capital on the same continent.

[Avicenna]

The campaign's been interesting so far. Left the Axis and joined the Allies, and got the Falklands back. I now dominate SA with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. My navy is as pathetic as ever, but my route to Rangoon is enemy free, so no ships have been sunk by the Japs, Germans or Italians. The Indo-China border is at a stalemate, with both sides having some kind of dig-in competition. I've given up trying to help on the Western Front.. My planes have gone from 100 str 100 exp to less than 20 exp.

Anyway, Keba, how can the SA hold out? I have less than one tenth of the USA's IC.

[Keba]

IC means nothing with preparation.

Put garrison divisions on your coasts, the more the better, and attach brigades to them (artillery usually works best, rocket even better, but that is for more powerful countries), then spend some IC and time to fortify them (1 or 2 fortifications are good enough, IIRC).

When you have the troops and are not at war with a neighbour, put army forces in reserve behind the coasts (I usually use 3 cavalry divisions with AC attached, mainly using them to subdue partisans).

Interceptor or fighter squadrons can also be of use, but rarely, it is good to keep a few on hand, of course.

Also, if you are in the Axis, then you can expect Germany to start dropping troops to your area and giving them to you. Happens constantly. Other countries probably will.

My current campaign with Germany has Argentinian troops seeing combat everywhere from Finland (beats me how they got there) to the Pacific. They are actually more useful that Italians.

[AggonyDuck]

The prob with South American countries is that you can't really defeat the US. You can hold them off for all eternity, but you can't really conquer the US. Unless of course you build up your IC country from 1936 onwards and build up a massive colonial empire first.
Actually that sounds like a pretty decent idea for a game. First conquer some countries in the SA, join the Allies, do some conquests against Italy before moving on towards fighting Japan in the pacific. You should be able to get lands in Korea, Japan and Indochina if all goes well. I'd even go for late game IC builds to get up my TC. Eventually you could have large enough forces to take on the US, in the late 40's.

[GoreBag]

A quick update on my Italian campaign: It's the strangest game of HoI2 I've ever played. Japan thoroughly whomped the Cathayans of all shapes and colours and puppeted the whole nation, save for a few regions that it kept for itself (Shanghai, Shangdong and some others) and was left to its own devices for years, until 1942, when they declared war on the USA for no good reason.

The Wehrmacht has crumbled. Finland and Slovakia were annexed by the soviets, Norway is occupied by the British and the last vestiges of German resistance are left in France. They now have less than 30 IC.

So, I've begun making nice with the Soviets. I've begun trading with them again and am spending a lot of cash to stay friendly with them. I'd rather they didn't liberate the rest of Europe after they're done with Germany.

Iraq had the big coup event before I could get there after taking the Suez. Syria then joined the Axis and blocked my route by conquering Palestine anyway. The Sauds refused to give me military access, so I plowed south through Sudan and Ethiopia, crushing the Allies along the way, until I was able to land in Yemen. I've almost completely annexed the southern end of Arabia, as my troops are entering the last province in the soon-to-be UAE as we speak. Japan has almost completely taken Burma, and thanks to my efforts, Pakistan has a revolt risk of roughly 70%.

I own the mediterranean, but it seems that a large US fleet has managed to get itself trapped inside and is being supplied through British held Spanish North Africa. Sneaky. This is obviously a threat to my naval dominance, but I don't know what to do about it.

I think will liberate Ethiopia soon, since my TC is being drilled by their partisans. I'll lose some IC, which I desperately need, though. I believe my next course of action should be to hop along the Allied-held islands east of the Horn and make my way to India, where I can, hopefully, meet the Japanese in the middle.

[mercian billman]

I'm playing as Italy right now and It's Feb 1938, I decided to make Ethiopia and Albania into puppet states rather than annex them. I used my Ethiopian Army to bolster my defense in N. Africa and have 4 divisions in Tripoli (including a tactical bomber squadron) and I have 11 divisions in Tobruk with 1 HQ and a tactical bomber and fighter squadron, I addition to this Rhodes is garrisoned by an infantry division and a fighter squadron and naval bomber, plus I'm building a port there. I also have 5 CA between Tobruk and Tripoli, The rest of my forces are in Italy with 2 divisions deployed in Albania.

Besides that nothing else has happened, I haven't allied with Germany yet, and they haven't annexed Austria, my question is should I focus my main effort in Eastern Europe? Attacking Yugoslavia will probably incite greece and Turkey into DOW, but will probably prompt Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria into joining the Axis. I'm thinking about waiting until Germany does Anschluss before declaring war, and then dealing with the situation in the Balkans.

As far as long term options go I figure that I have 2 options,

1. Focus on N. Africa and the Central Med, by taking Malta I can ensure that my supplies reach N. Africa and probably seize the Suez without German help.

2. Focus on the Balkans and the Eastern Med, I can use Greece and Yugoslavia as bases to launch an attack into Turkey and from there I have the choice of helping the Germans by engaging the Soviets in the Caucasus or going after the Middle East and outflanking the UK.

Any advice or recomendations would be welcome.

[Avicenna]

Wait. If I base on a British Island and launch an attack I will get land for myself instead of the British? That's nice. Italian land sounds hard to get though, with the Italians having a more updated and numerous navy than me (I've focussed my 2 tech team slots on upgrading my land primarily, and getting a little CAS upgrading). I think I'll take Sicily. Will 2 infantry divisions with org in the 90s and an early artillery brigade take it and hold it do you think? It's 1942.

[screwtype]

Any advice or recomendations would be welcome.

I have very limited experience with this game, but I played Italy a few times and began to streamline my strategy somewhat, it went something like this:

First, take Ethiopia and Albania, they are obvious targets.

Then take Republican and Nationalist Spain after they begin their civil war, this is one of the few countries you can attack early in the game that does not have its independence guaranteed by someone.

I don't recall the exact sequence of things after that but I always attacked Vichy France on the French mainland after the Germans force the French surrender. That gives you a land bridge to your assets in Spain which is handy.

Then attack Yugoslavia and Greece as soon as all the independence guarantees run out. Then Bulgaria. Then, once Britain is at war with Germany, mount a simultaneous suprise attack on Gibraltar and Suez and you've essentially made the Mediterranean an Italian lake. Then clean out the remaining British and Vichy provinces around the Med.

That's about as far as I got in my last campaign before I got bored. At that stage, I had taken Syria, Iraq and Turkey, and the Brits were trying to take back Ethiopia and mount some attacks further north. It just seemed to me the game was going to degenerate into a struggle over Africa, and I couldn't get excited about the prospect. Perhaps I should have tried something dramatic like an invasion of Britain, but then, I had seriously neglected my navy up to that point.

[screwtype]

But since everyone is asking for advice, maybe I should too.

In the last game I started I was playing as Greece and finding it pretty hard going. The Greeks have only got a few IC's - currently only 17, which isn't even enough for a second research slot - and not very good armed forces. Because I only had about 9 IC's to put into the military, I put 5 into churning out 1936 infantry divisions as fast as possible, and the other 4 into upgrading the existing 1918 divisions. But even so, I only have a dozen good divisions and no airforce at all and I'd be struggling to conquer practically anyone (except maybe Portugal, whose independence is currently guaranteed by Great Britain). It's December 1938.

Anyone have any ideas on how to play one of these itty bitty little powers? Call me a romantic fool, but my secret desire is to conquer the whole of Europe

[Avicenna]

Grab Albania or something. So IC is the key to research teams? Better go and take Sicily then. I'm approaching 40 IC with Argentina... afterwards I might do a bit of independence guaranteeing and then cheat a bit and get Bolivia (the only country within reach that won't get me more coasts to guard) to DoW on all so that my interventionism pops up a bit.

[SwordsMaster]

Hi, I'm playing my first game as Germany (yes, yes, my first one as Germany, what? Don't look at me like that!) and I don't really know how to make the Anshluss (or whatever the unification with Austria is called) happen. Any suggestions?


I have now occupied Austria after a surprisingly bloody war, Hungary that DoWed me for no good reason, then had the PArtition of Chekoslovakia event with non-existant Hungary, but I was forgetting to research into my infantry, when in 1938 Italy DoWed me (wtf? we had a +130 relation), and then France, poland and the rest of the allies. I managed to get a white peace with Italy as a needed to free my troops, but by the time I managed to shift them to my new warzone, the french had broken through with 20 divisions, and despite heavy bombardment have made slow progress, but are now in a pocket with some 12 of my divisions surrounding them, and hoping the bombers wear them down before they manage a breakthrough. On the Eastern front, Poland is being pushed back steadily, and as soon as I manage to reinforce, I should reach Warsaw. Hopefully, after that I will be able to shift some divisions to the west.

It is 1939 now, how do you force polish surrender? apart from annexing them outright that is...

[GoreBag]

Anyone have any ideas on how to play one of these itty bitty little powers? Call me a romantic fool, but my secret desire is to conquer the whole of Europe

I had a fairly successful campaign as Greece, but my warmongering would eventually put me in a position I couldn't win. First to go was Albania, and then, I interfered in the Spanish civil war. The Nationalists are far more likely to accept an alliance when they're at war, so I went for it and traded back the crap provinces I took for technological blueprints I desperately needed. Bulgaria, if memory serves, agreed to let me have the territory I wanted, but the Yugos wouldn't have it, so I took some time to prepare for war with them. They joined the Allies, which, of course, guaranteed their destruction at Germany's hands. I got the territory I wanted, but it hurled my tiny, little alliance of two minors against the combined might of the Allies. I was about ready to throw in the towel when Spain invaded Newfoundland (!!!!). I and my ally captured Gibraltar and sealed off the Western entrance to the Med, but since the Italians are notoriously inept, the Suez was not taken and very, very larg enemy fleets had little problem entering and making my life a misery.

Still, not a bad haul. A few things could have been differently to hopefully avoid war with the Allies and all that. Feel free to mimick the parts that you like.

[Keba]

Hi, I'm playing my first game as Germany (yes, yes, my first one as Germany, what? Don't look at me like that!) and I don't really know how to make the Anshluss (or whatever the unification with Austria is called) happen. Any suggestions?


I have now occupied Austria after a surprisingly bloody war, Hungary that DoWed me for no good reason, then had the PArtition of Chekoslovakia event with non-existant Hungary, but I was forgetting to research into my infantry, when in 1938 Italy DoWed me (wtf? we had a +130 relation), and then France, poland and the rest of the allies. I managed to get a white peace with Italy as a needed to free my troops, but by the time I managed to shift them to my new warzone, the french had broken through with 20 divisions, and despite heavy bombardment have made slow progress, but are now in a pocket with some 12 of my divisions surrounding them, and hoping the bombers wear them down before they manage a breakthrough. On the Eastern front, Poland is being pushed back steadily, and as soon as I manage to reinforce, I should reach Warsaw. Hopefully, after that I will be able to shift some divisions to the west.

It is 1939 now, how do you force polish surrender? apart from annexing them outright that is...

Wow, sounds a lot like my first game with Germany.

First off, you have to wait. The Anschluss event fires in 1938 (somewhere), you get cores on all Austrian provinces, their industry and army, Hungary as an ally, and continue with an even that first gives you Sudetland, then the whole of Check piece of Checko-slovakia (you only get cores on Sudetland, though).

The final event in that sequence is Danzig or War which starts the whole mess.

So, when playing Germany, it pays to be patient, use the 3 years leading up to the war to prepare, build a navy, muster a massive army, and then wait until you can unleash the storm on an unsuspecting Europe.

Otherwise, weird things happen, the AI tends to go a bit crazy when you do something unexpected or totally random (such as, say, the Allies fighting the Comintern at the same tame as the Axis, Poland being a member of the Axis ).

[Avicenna]

Uhh.. isn't Newfoundland over in Canada or somewhere? How did the Spaniards get there?

By the way, when playing Italy, the Germans gave me plenty of free tech. Even the Bulgarians did. Does this only happen if you're important? As Argentina, apart from a bare basics package along with the Falklands from the UK, I got nothing. The Germans only sent an aerial army, of which only a few air divisions actually helped me against Brazil when I was allied. No tech to speak of.

Is this all scripted with certain countries getting lots of free tech?

[SwordsMaster]

Wow, sounds a lot like my first game with Germany.

First off, you have to wait. The Anschluss event fires in 1938 (somewhere), you get cores on all Austrian provinces, their industry and army, Hungary as an ally, and continue with an even that first gives you Sudetland, then the whole of Check piece of Checko-slovakia (you only get cores on Sudetland, though).

The final event in that sequence is Danzig or War which starts the whole mess.

So, when playing Germany, it pays to be patient, use the 3 years leading up to the war to prepare, build a navy, muster a massive army, and then wait until you can unleash the storm on an unsuspecting Europe.

Otherwise, weird things happen, the AI tends to go a bit crazy when you do something unexpected or totally random (such as, say, the Allies fighting the Comintern at the same tame as the Axis, Poland being a member of the Axis ).

Hmm... I see. Thanks! Will restart and try again.

[discovery1]

AI ships have unlimited range, which can lead to some stupid stuff. In my latest game Italian transports were chilling ALONE off of terria del fuego and Japanese destroyers were patroling the Atlantic. Note that the Japanese are not allied to me the Germans or anyone else for that matter.

[Avicenna]

I guess that explains the Japanese and Chinese navies wandering around the Med... and how the Americans can pop over.. well.. anywhere, really.

[GoreBag]

I really wish they would change that aspect of the game.

[AggonyDuck]

Uhh.. isn't Newfoundland over in Canada or somewhere? How did the Spaniards get there?

By the way, when playing Italy, the Germans gave me plenty of free tech. Even the Bulgarians did. Does this only happen if you're important? As Argentina, apart from a bare basics package along with the Falklands from the UK, I got nothing. The Germans only sent an aerial army, of which only a few air divisions actually helped me against Brazil when I was allied. No tech to speak of.

Is this all scripted with certain countries getting lots of free tech?

I think it just has to do with the fact that some nations are more generous with their techs than others. Germany tends to be a very good ally when it comes to blueprint sharing, while the UK tends to be absolutely rubbish. In my game as Argentina, the Germans kept me up to date quite nicely.

[Avicenna]

Really? I guess it varies campaign to campaign then. I ditched Germany for that very reason: they didn't help me after Brazil at all, and got me into war with the Allies.

[Hepcat]

I have become addicted to this game. I have only had it for a few weeks. I was Poland to learn to play the game, then decided to be Germany for a challenge. When I didn't declare war on Russia they attacked me in 1943 anyway and delayed my invasion of Britain.

It is now 1947 I have had nuclear weapons since 1944 and I have nuked Washington DC and fought all the way to the pacific, Russia only has a few provinces left. I have also overrun England though the British keep coming back and getting defeated. Spain and Portugal have also joined the Axis.

[mercian billman]

I just thought I'd update you all on the progress of my game, It's March 1939 and the Axis powers have conquered Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and Czechslovakia (sp?) Britain and France. Italian, German, and Bulgarian Armies are poised to strike into the Caucausus and the Middle East, While Italian forces outnumber the British in N. Africa, The only thing that can stop me from taking over Egypt is British Naval power. At this point I believe the Italian navy is strong enough to challenge the French in the Western Med and keep my supply lines to Africa open, but were not strong enough to challenge the British in the East. Fortunately I have enough air power in the region to keep the British Navy in check and support my ground troops.

I can't guarantee victory, but I do know that it will be a close run affair, as long as I can preserve my Navy and keep the sealanes to N. Africa open I will have a good chance of defeating the British.

[Glaucus]

Can someone tell me what this game is all about? A quick summary and answer these questions:

Is it like RTW as in campaign mode and battle mode? Is it turn based?

How big is the map? Just Europe? Or Europe/Asia/Africa? Or whole world?

Replayability? If I play Italy once will it always be the same, or will the outcome be totally different depending on what choices I make?

Different types of units? For instance, is it simply "infantry" or do different nations have different units with different pros and cons?

Thanks.

[Csargo]

Can someone tell me what this game is all about? A quick summary and answer these questions:

Is it like RTW as in campaign mode and battle mode? Is it turn based?

How big is the map? Just Europe? Or Europe/Asia/Africa? Or whole world?

Replayability? If I play Italy once will it always be the same, or will the outcome be totally different depending on what choices I make?

Different types of units? For instance, is it simply "infantry" or do different nations have different units with different pros and cons?

Thanks.

1. No totally different and No it goes in real time you can change the speed of the game to whatever you want.

2. The entire world

3. Not that I've noticed I've never seen a game exactly the same since I started playing.

4. It's simply infantry but you can add on brigades such as Artillery etc.

[GoreBag]

To eloborate on the 'infantry' point, there are several kinds of foot troops - 'infantry' is the catch-all term for the basic division. There are also marines, mountaineers, paratroopers, militia, garrisons, motorized infantry, mechanised infantry and cavalry. I can't remember if Air Cavalry are an upgrade along the cavalry line or a separate unit altogether..

As you can see, the units are abstracted but they have to be because of the size of the game. As well, different countries also follow different lines of tactics , which increase their units' abilities in certain areas, like night-fighting, for example.

[Glaucus]

So is it sort of like risk where armies attack each other and each army looses men until one is detroyed? Or can you command the battle personally?

[Csargo]

So is it sort of like risk where armies attack each other and each army looses men until one is detroyed? Or can you command the battle personally?

No not really. The map has thousands of provinces in it.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...reenindex.html

There's some screenshots of it.

[Glaucus]

Nice! Thanks man.

[screwtype]

I had a fairly successful campaign as Greece, but my warmongering would eventually put me in a position I couldn't win. First to go was Albania, and then, I interfered in the Spanish civil war. The Nationalists are far more likely to accept an alliance when they're at war, so I went for it and traded back the crap provinces I took for technological blueprints I desperately needed.

Yeah, I already took Albania but you only get 1 IC from there. I didn't bother to either annex or puppet because you still get the IC and you can keep them quiet with just a division in each province.

I then attacked Republican Spain but just as I got there and grabbed a couple of provinces, the Nationalists defeated the Repubs and I found myself with only two Spanish provinces and a Nat. Spanish army much larger than mine, so little hope of further expansion in that direction.

I'm now eyeing Bulgaria and Yugo, but they're both still somewhat stronger than me militarily and have guarantees so not ready for an attack on them yet. Bulgaria is always a juicy target, because they only have a few provinces and quite good IC, but I'm always torn between outright annexation or puppeting because when you puppet you get the use of all their IC's, albeit you don't have control over what they research or build. Which do you think is better?