Hi, and welcome to the second developer diary for the Hearts of Iron 3 DLC ”Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung” which features among many other things a German campaign focus. With Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung, you will be able to play Germany and only Germany, but like you never played it before in an Hearts of Iron game.
In this diary, we will talk a about the some changes in the gameplay that DI:G brings to HoI3.
The Operational Feature:
In Dies Irae, as in real life, different areas call for different equipment. You can't just send your troops in the field and expect them to be 100% efficient in all terrains. This is why we made Operational Planning a key to success in the game. We made it in two different parts:
A-Historical chances:
In Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung (thanks to this project, I can spell it now!), we are 110% focused on Germany (you can't even play another country). But we didn't want you to play the same campaign all over again: hop hop I make my OOB, I setup my techs, I switch two ministers and I hit the maximum speed waiting for 1939 to come. We included dozens of gameplay events and some decisions to make in the '36-'41 timeframe. Let's talk about the decisions. In vanilla HOI3, Germany has basically 4 decisions to take before the war: Remilitarization of the Rhineland, Anschluss of Austria, Treaty of Munich and first Vienna Award.
We wanted to make you actually think about what your are doing. For instance, Remilitarization of the Rhineland decision can now lead to an early war against France and United Kingdom, as historically there were tensions between Germany and the Allies. Of course there is only a little chance to see this happen and you can avoid the war by choosing not to Remilitarize the Rhineland (not to take the decision).
Left: historical outcome.
Right: something bad happened. There is some decisions about this early war which can be stopped in 1937 with either or white peace or German victory/defeat over France. The early war is not killing the '36 campaign but you can be sure that France and United Kingdom will be prepared for your next move.
In a similar manner, if you put enough leadership points in espionnage and raising the different NSDAP over your neighbors, the player can choose between a diplomatic and forced Anschluss or make an earlier push over the Sudetenland and the annexation of Czechoslovakia. All those decisions can lead to an early world war too, related to how you acted in the past: if you don't remilitarize the Rhineland, you show the Allies that you are in a good spirit and that could prevent any early war and so on. Helped with some good fortune, you can even have all the cake without any war (until you ask too much).
(link)
When I don't find historical background, I allow myself a little fun with the event descriptions.
This event is the consequence of two things: Poland agreed to give away Dantzig to Germany (thanks to the NSDAP being powerful in this country) ; and the decision that Germany had made after the secession of Dantzig to exige Upper Silesia.
DI:G provides a lot of a-historical possibilities. I can't share all of them but I want to show one more.
In HOI3, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is not mandatory and you can simply avoid the pact and be sure Soviet Union won't stab you while you are in France or while you are preparing your forces. With the DLC this is not true anymore. You can't just play around without fearing the consequences. There are two ways to sign the pact: Germany asks or, if not, Soviet will ask in late August. That way you can't ignore the pact, you'll have to refuse it if you don't want it, making clear in the eyes of Stalin that you want the conflict. The M-R Pact also provides the historical Soviet invasion of Poland, making you operate faster in this campaign and not having to grab all the victory points by yourself.
Left: if you sign the pact, you'll have to respect it: no more annexation of the Baltic States without some Soviet move. Anyway this is based on random chance + some modifiers too. So you can take the shot at your own risk.
Right: Not signing the pact can lead to some surprises, based on random chances and either or not you annexed the Baltic States / helped Finland in the Winter War
This is the end of the second Developer Diary for Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung. Don't worry, we have still a lot of things to talk about in the next one.
Few words: Barbarossa, U-Boats and Reichministers.
Oh, and a little surprise you might find interesting:
(link)
-Devildread and Danevang
--edit: Bonus picture
In this diary, we will talk a about the some changes in the gameplay that DI:G brings to HoI3.
The Operational Feature:
In Dies Irae, as in real life, different areas call for different equipment. You can't just send your troops in the field and expect them to be 100% efficient in all terrains. This is why we made Operational Planning a key to success in the game. We made it in two different parts:
- Operation planning
The player has access to several "technologies/doctrines" abstractly representing the generals drawing plans of the area, local tactics planning and in general having some people of your staff working on the subject. Those technologies, once researched, lead to several bonus such as a special decisions with little manpower boost and some otherwise hidden events. The idea is to give some awards for the player who plays historically and to have some interesting bonus while he invests time and leadership in planning.
Left: Operation Weresubung, the troops were transported in capital and escort ships so we have decided to model this with a little transport capacity increase that may let you put 2-3 brigades in a Kriegsmarine surface fleet.
Right: Once the techs are researched, you have access to a decision available only in a short period of time (one year) that grants you several little bonus (those Weresubung decisions gives you 50 manpower each).
- Operational units
The other part we want to introduce is the Operational Units feature. We created an Afrika Korps Operational tech that activate four units: Afrika Korps infantry, Afrika Korps motorized infantry, Afrika Korps mechanized infantry and Afrika Korps armor. Those units are specialized in the new desert terrains we created in North Africa, replacing the whole plains, hills, urban or mountains we had in vanilla. Desert warfare is now more bloody (higher attrition) and favouring the defender.
(link)
Sending regular units under this climate is not recommended and this is why we made the Afrika Korps desert equiped regiments. You can't create an Afrika Korps regiment, you have to select a unit on the map and equip it with desert stuff, thanks to the upgrade function.
Left: once completed, you can ship those units to Africa.
Right: the Afrika Korps Operational tech also include a decision making Italy donate you three transport ships in the Med.
A-Historical chances:
In Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung (thanks to this project, I can spell it now!), we are 110% focused on Germany (you can't even play another country). But we didn't want you to play the same campaign all over again: hop hop I make my OOB, I setup my techs, I switch two ministers and I hit the maximum speed waiting for 1939 to come. We included dozens of gameplay events and some decisions to make in the '36-'41 timeframe. Let's talk about the decisions. In vanilla HOI3, Germany has basically 4 decisions to take before the war: Remilitarization of the Rhineland, Anschluss of Austria, Treaty of Munich and first Vienna Award.
We wanted to make you actually think about what your are doing. For instance, Remilitarization of the Rhineland decision can now lead to an early war against France and United Kingdom, as historically there were tensions between Germany and the Allies. Of course there is only a little chance to see this happen and you can avoid the war by choosing not to Remilitarize the Rhineland (not to take the decision).
Left: historical outcome.
Right: something bad happened. There is some decisions about this early war which can be stopped in 1937 with either or white peace or German victory/defeat over France. The early war is not killing the '36 campaign but you can be sure that France and United Kingdom will be prepared for your next move.
In a similar manner, if you put enough leadership points in espionnage and raising the different NSDAP over your neighbors, the player can choose between a diplomatic and forced Anschluss or make an earlier push over the Sudetenland and the annexation of Czechoslovakia. All those decisions can lead to an early world war too, related to how you acted in the past: if you don't remilitarize the Rhineland, you show the Allies that you are in a good spirit and that could prevent any early war and so on. Helped with some good fortune, you can even have all the cake without any war (until you ask too much).
(link)
When I don't find historical background, I allow myself a little fun with the event descriptions.
This event is the consequence of two things: Poland agreed to give away Dantzig to Germany (thanks to the NSDAP being powerful in this country) ; and the decision that Germany had made after the secession of Dantzig to exige Upper Silesia.
DI:G provides a lot of a-historical possibilities. I can't share all of them but I want to show one more.
In HOI3, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is not mandatory and you can simply avoid the pact and be sure Soviet Union won't stab you while you are in France or while you are preparing your forces. With the DLC this is not true anymore. You can't just play around without fearing the consequences. There are two ways to sign the pact: Germany asks or, if not, Soviet will ask in late August. That way you can't ignore the pact, you'll have to refuse it if you don't want it, making clear in the eyes of Stalin that you want the conflict. The M-R Pact also provides the historical Soviet invasion of Poland, making you operate faster in this campaign and not having to grab all the victory points by yourself.
Left: if you sign the pact, you'll have to respect it: no more annexation of the Baltic States without some Soviet move. Anyway this is based on random chance + some modifiers too. So you can take the shot at your own risk.
Right: Not signing the pact can lead to some surprises, based on random chances and either or not you annexed the Baltic States / helped Finland in the Winter War
This is the end of the second Developer Diary for Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung. Don't worry, we have still a lot of things to talk about in the next one.
Few words: Barbarossa, U-Boats and Reichministers.
Oh, and a little surprise you might find interesting:
(link)
-Devildread and Danevang
--edit: Bonus picture
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