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HOI 3 Impressions, review and wishes

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bioshark

bioshark

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Nov 24, 2012
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I just want to share some of my impressions about this wonderful game.

I am owning HOI3 (with all the add-ons) for over 1 year now and I have started it 3 times.

1. Romania - Learning the basic game

I am a Romanian, so I wanted to simulate Romania's behavior in WW2 as I would have wanted it to happen in real life. This means that I managed to stay neutral from the main war (I did conquer Bulgaria because they claimed some land from me). Skipping the part that I did not know how to organize my army properly, I've been training some infantry, tanks and finally a full navy including a few carriers. I've been quite successful in distributing my leadership towards science, so that by the end of '47 or 48 I was owning the nuclear bomb. Germany conquered USSR and managed to repel the British a few times. As I was approaching the 50's I've got bored and stopped playing.

2. Germany - Learning to fight

My second start was with Germany. I've been reading a lot about army organization, and tactics. I've managed to learn army distribution and efficient research. I've been warring with Germany all over Europe. Conquered Austria, the Czech, Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland, France, Belgium and Holland. One British invasion has also been repelled in Italy. In the same time I've been building the Atlantic wall, but didn't end up using it. After attacking USSR, some personal issues intervened and stopped me from playing. After returning to it, everything seems strange so I started all over again.

3. Romania - The maturity (current play)

So, I've got back to Romania, and tried to apply all the knowledge gained so far plus the stuff I've learned from reading this forum. It was the time I got Their Finest Hours, so I was able to lower(or increase ?!) my threat towards my neighbors. By the beginning of May '39 I've been accepted to the Axis and managed to conquere: Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Albania, Serbia, Slovakia and part of Poland. Here is a screenshot:

5173BAB521494996D7B1FF9460E844BD5681D017


Russia finally declared war on Germany at the end of '41. My current army is infantry based and consists of around 50 divisions - all 5 brigades (half 3Inf-1Art-1AT and the rest 3Inf-1Art-1Eng) . I've got arround 24 air-wings: Multi role fighters and Close Air Support. As much as I could I have garrisoned every port in the Balkans. I've loaded a few times the war with USSR, and currently I think I have managed to break the front and advance into Russian territory. The main problem is the AI that controls Germany. It's acting to erratic, to illogical. We will see where we get from here. All in all I think this play through is my most successful one, because I have managed to apply all my knowledge with great success.

I am still looking forward to play with the US and maybe with the USSR.

The game is an absolute masterpiece, and it's got a high addiction level. I've logged around 150 hours on steam (and at least 50 more off-line). I do have some wishes:

- I'd like to be able to select victory conditions even though I am not playing as a Major.
- I'd like to be alerted when one of my divisions is taken prisoner (not that I discover it's absence after 1 month :))
- I'd like to be alerted when a landing happens on a fellow faction nation.
- Stop all the annoying alerts about convoys being raided.
- The ability to quickly see the selected divisions higher hierarchies.
- ... and other small stuff.

I know HOI4 is around the corner but I will not buy it straight away because:
- It will definitely be expensive and probably buggy from start. I'll wait 1-2 years for it to mature and maybe add an add-on or 2.
- I still haven't exploited hoi3 to it's full potential.

So here it is, my opinion on Hoi3.

cheers.
 
I love this game too but it still has bugs after these many years that could use a fix. I'm really scared that they are toning down the complexity for HOI4 but let's see. If it is less bug-prone then I'll get it.
 
Sounds like most of the things you have problems with can be fixed with the Message settings dialog. When in game, press esc till the game Menu comes up and one of the selections is "Message Settings". There you can turn on/off which events create a pop up.

Tip: When playing as Germany, cancel all your convoys the day War starts with England.
Pro tip:) when you have lots of oversea resources that require resource convoys but you don't control the seas, about once a month or so, turn on auto resource convoys, and auto fill convoys for a day or so, then cancel them all. All the resources build up till you ship them and the backlog is shipped the first day.
 
bioshark said:
The game is an absolute masterpiece, and it's got a high addiction level. I've logged around 150 hours on steam (and at least 50 more off-line).
Click to expand...
Indeed! :D

bioshark said:
- Stop all the annoying alerts about convoys being raided.
Click to expand...
You can get rid of it by right clicking on the pop-up (lower right) and unticking where it says ~"show as a pop-up"

bioshark said:
- The ability to quickly see the selected divisions higher hierarchies.
Click to expand...

You can, when you have a division selected press (lower case) "o"
 
szcott69 said:
Sounds like most of the things you have problems with can be fixed with the Message settings dialog. When in game, press esc till the game Menu comes up and one of the selections is "Message Settings". There you can turn on/off which events create a pop up.

Tip: When playing as Germany, cancel all your convoys the day War starts with England.
Pro tip:) when you have lots of oversea resources that require resource convoys but you don't control the seas, about once a month or so, turn on auto resource convoys, and auto fill convoys for a day or so, then cancel them all. All the resources build up till you ship them and the backlog is shipped the first day.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot. Been playing the game for so long now, and I didn't see this option :)

P.S. I knew about the tip with the convoy cancellation, but not the Pro tip :) Thanks.
 
bioshark said:
Thanks a lot. Been playing the game for so long now, and I didn't see this option :)

P.S. I knew about the tip with the convoy cancellation, but not the Pro tip :) Thanks.
Click to expand...

As Germany, you can avoid reliance on purchasing materials that go over sea or ocean. It's ok to sell stuff to over seas customers since most of those are either non aligned or allied and it's their own ships that pick the stuff up.

I stick to buying and selling from and to those countries with a land route to them, for the most part. That solves the whole convoy mess. You'll loose customers once the war starts, but if you got your important materials into the green (even if just barely), you'll gather up enough stockpiles when you go conquering that you'll not run into problems... unless, maybe, you go too much into armor and other fuel using divisions.
 
Pugmak said:
As Germany, you can avoid reliance on purchasing materials that go over sea or ocean. It's ok to sell stuff to over seas customers since most of those are either non aligned or allied and it's their own ships that pick the stuff up.

I stick to buying and selling from and to those countries with a land route to them, for the most part. That solves the whole convoy mess. You'll loose customers once the war starts, but if you got your important materials into the green (even if just barely), you'll gather up enough stockpiles when you go conquering that you'll not run into problems... unless, maybe, you go too much into armor and other fuel using divisions.
Click to expand...

As I have said, currently I am playing as Romania, kicking some soviet buts. I have a 90% infantry oriented army, so no mech. I haven't had any issues with convoys so far, but the again I am keeping my trade on "auto-trade". I am not sure that's the best option, but for now it works. (Steel keeps on going towards 0 though....)
 
bioshark said:
- I'd like to be able to select victory conditions even though I am not playing as a Major.
Click to expand...
You can before you start the scenario. If you can’t as for example Rumania, first pick the faction leader (Germany), set the conditions and then select Rumania. You can use this method to set war goals for all factions and make the game harder to play and more realistic. Once you set all the VC, just save the game under a different name, like : A good start”, and use for any nation you play.

bioshark said:
- I'd like to be alerted when one of my divisions is taken prisoner (not that I discover it's absence after 1 month :))
- I'd like to be alerted when a landing happens on a fellow faction nation.
- Stop all the annoying alerts about convoys being raided.
Click to expand...
Again you can. Check your message settings > esc > message settings

bioshark said:
- The ability to quickly see the selected divisions higher hierarchies.
Click to expand...
Do you mean a line for example a Corps HQ to the Army HQ etc? Because that is possible. It’s somewhere in the options. IIRC game options > something like show hierarchy

bioshark said:
I know HOI4 is around the corner
Click to expand...
Because of that, don’t expect any changes to HOI3. For obvious reasons PI won’t invest any time and money anymore in HOI3. The release of HOI4 is expected Q1 2015…so only a couple of months.
 
If you want to go up a level and take advantage of a lot of work in immersion try going to the "other mods" in this forum, download and play Deutsche Wehrmacht Imersion with the Viva Italia additional mod. It will be good for another thousand or two hours of enjoyment. The mod ers are still investing in HOI3 for awhile longer.
 
Oof said:
You can before you start the scenario. If you can’t as for example Rumania, first pick the faction leader (Germany), set the conditions and then select Rumania. You can use this method to set war goals for all factions and make the game harder to play and more realistic. Once you set all the VC, just save the game under a different name, like : A good start”, and use for any nation you play.


Again you can. Check your message settings > esc > message settings


Do you mean a line for example a Corps HQ to the Army HQ etc? Because that is possible. It’s somewhere in the options. IIRC game options > something like show hierarchy


Because of that, don’t expect any changes to HOI3. For obvious reasons PI won’t invest any time and money anymore in HOI3. The release of HOI4 is expected Q1 2015…so only a couple of months.
Click to expand...

Great tip about the victory conditions. Thanks!
 
That's what we, forum members, are here for :)
 
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