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Linx MP

First Lieutenant
82 Badges
Jun 15, 2004
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I have had the chance to play a few games in recent weeks after not playing for about eight months or so. With the new DLC coming out I was tempted to try out the new systems and have been playing and enjoying crafting my games with custom game rules trying to recreate WW2 mostly historical except for my own input of course.

I have played the Netherlands in all my games and tried two games with the new DLC and would like to share my experience.

To setup the game I have buffed Italy one step and set all countries except Mexico to historical focus.

My first impression is that civil wars can happen even if a country is set to their historical path. Poland had one for instance in my second game. Lithuania had one the first and the fascist one in that one.

In both games WW2 broke out for quicker and was much larger quicker then I was expecting or hoping. In April 1939 war broke out between Roumania and Hungary and this kicked off the war. Poland fell in mere seconds and France could not hold against Italy in the south in both games.

In general there seems to be far fewer units on the field. The AI also adapts to the new supply system but this leads it to not have units on all locations on the front line. This happened in my first game when Germany was deep into Russia so I assume he just didn't have the required units but I have also seen Japan leave gaps in its line where this was not required as it had the units locally to not do it. The units are then easily pocketed of course.

The Spanish civil war ended within a year in both games. In the previous patch this war was very well balanced with the war dragging into 1939 often but this balance seems to have been lost.

Getting army XP seems to have been nerfed considerably. Training did not give a lot of XP before but now gives you jack****. 0.009 per day while training my whole army. I want to get my divisions to trained to perform better in combat but for the XP gain I might as well not. Combat also seems to have reduced the rate at which you receive xp. I understand this is a new game mechanic but I do question if this nerf is a bit too much. Even in the longer game of the two I only managed to unlock 5 land doctrines before the war ended and that was due to two 50% discounts and the 10% discount adviser. This also prevented me from having more then two different army templates on the field. I had an upgraded infantry template for 45xp and a motorised/mechanised division for 40xp but could not form a Marine division which costs 100xp or an armoured division for 50xp. This in my opinion needs some balancing.

On the other hand I had a lot more navy xp then I needed. Due to re-balance in resources increases due to the infrastructure changes I had plenty of oil to keep the navy training all throughout the pre-war phase.

The tank designer is a bit of mixed bag. It was fun to tinker around with it but there seems to have been a increase in the base cost of tanks. I purposefully designed a cheap tank to build but it was still much harder to get enough number then previously. Normally I am swimming in light tanks shortly after starting production and can pull away factories to other things but not now. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it was noticeable and I wonder if this does not make it even harder for the AI to field tanks divisions.
With the scarcity of xp it also makes using the tank designer a bit of a luxury which is a shame.

I will keep playing in the coming days but I am also looking forward to new patches and re-balancing over the coming days as well.

Thank you for reading.
 
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In general there seems to be far fewer units on the field. The AI also adapts to the new supply system but this leads it to not have units on all locations on the front line. This happened in my first game when Germany was deep into Russia so I assume he just didn't have the required units but I have also seen Japan leave gaps in its line where this was not required as it had the units locally to not do it. The units are then easily pocketed of course.
This sounds like a good thing. Historically units were bunched up around supply hubs and rail lines. Not spread across a giant line like this is the western front in WW1
 
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There have definitely been a lot of balancing changes to the game, I haven't played enough to form strong opinions yet, but so far I like the feel of them, playing as Germany my equipment stockpiles normally rocket upwards. Now though? Even supporting two panzer divisions in the Spanish Civil War was keeping my light tank stockpile flat, and even negative a couple of time(Not by much).

For me, the SCW did not end within a year, it drug on for about two years, with the Soviet volunteers making a good shoring for themselves, there was even a point where I had to use my panzers as a fire brigade to plug gaps and keep the front from being pinched off along the Portuguese border.
 
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I have played three games all as Soviet union and I have to say its quite frustrating. The Spanish civil war now regularly ends in 1937 because the fascists just overrun the Republicans with the new supply system. I tried to turn it as the Soviet union even wiped out the Southern part but they just kept pushing onward overrunning Madrid and the rest of the country nonetheless.

The Germans are ridiculous strong they attacked me with 400+ Divisions. I had several defensive lines prepared, blew railroads it didn't matter, they did not slow for mud, winter or anything. They have more and better divisions, resistance in the Soviet union is so low that it doesn't bother them, the focuses one has to pick to strengthen the red army are so many, I have not yet been able to finish a game where I had them all selected before being defeated.
I tried different tactics defending the immediate borders and defending in staggered lines in the hinterlands.
I caused more damage defending the borders, even though half my army was destroyed in the first two months of the war. There doesn't seem to be any logistical problems for the axis whatsoever. Even had Italy naval invade the Crimea, defeating several strong of my divisions and opening up a new front. At the moment its unplayable in my perspective. Even if I completly ignore the economic and foreign policy focuses I do not have enough time to finish all neccessary pre-war focuses.
 
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I have played three games all as Soviet union and I have to say its quite frustrating. The Spanish civil war now regularly ends in 1937 because the fascists just overrun the Republicans with the new supply system. I tried to turn it as the Soviet union even wiped out the Southern part but they just kept pushing onward overrunning Madrid and the rest of the country nonetheless.

The Germans are ridiculous strong they attacked me with 400+ Divisions. I had several defensive lines prepared, blew railroads it didn't matter, they did not slow for mud, winter or anything. They have more and better divisions, resistance in the Soviet union is so low that it doesn't bother them, the focuses one has to pick to strengthen the red army are so many, I have not yet been able to finish a game where I had them all selected before being defeated.
I tried different tactics defending the immediate borders and defending in staggered lines in the hinterlands.
I caused more damage defending the borders, even though half my army was destroyed in the first two months of the war. There doesn't seem to be any logistical problems for the axis whatsoever. Even had Italy naval invade the Crimea, defeating several strong of my divisions and opening up a new front. At the moment its unplayable in my perspective. Even if I completly ignore the economic and foreign policy focuses I do not have enough time to finish all neccessary pre-war focuses.
I did a spectator game and Germany didn't manage to defeat the Soviets. The casualty numbers were pretty equal and it became a stalemate roughly at the historical "turning point border", eventually the Allies did their D-day shenanigans and ended the war. Maybe my game was the exception rather than the rule, but I suppose it still means that it's possible to defend. I don't think the Germans managed to reach Moscow.
 
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I did a spectator game and Germany didn't manage to defeat the Soviets. The casualty numbers were pretty equal and it became a stalemate roughly at the historical "turning point border", eventually the Allies did their D-day shenanigans and ended the war. Maybe my game was the exception rather than the rule, but I suppose it still means that it's possible to defend. I don't think the Germans managed to reach Moscow.
In my most recent game (Ostland, with historical AI focuses), Germany, Italy, and myself steamrolled the USSR, and had almost no issues with supply. However, it is true that given I was playing Ostland, I might have changed the outcome from how it normally goes.
 
Getting army XP seems to have been nerfed considerably. Training did not give a lot of XP before but now gives you jack****. 0.009 per day while training my whole army. I want to get my divisions to trained to perform better in combat but for the XP gain I might as well not. Combat also seems to have reduced the rate at which you receive xp. I understand this is a new game mechanic but I do question if this nerf is a bit too much.
Are you aware that we now have to get XP from advisers? You need to appoint (non-theorist) high command early on in order to build up XP.
 
Are you aware that we now have to get XP from advisers? You need to appoint (non-theorist) high command early on in order to build up XP.
The advisor XP gain is supplementary at best. Previously you gained 0.05 XP daily for 150 PP, now you get roughly 0.35 daily for 400-500 PP (which is quite an amount that not everyone has lying around in 1937), depending on the country. Relatively speaking that's a lot more XP than before, but still very little in absolute numbers - especially now that you need huge amounts of additional XP to unlock a bunch of doctrines before the war, while all alternative army XP sources have been nerfed noticeably, it doesn't add up without calling it a nerf. Even with a 50% focus tree discount and a 10% theorist discount (which requires another 100 PP), that's still 40 XP per tech, which equals waiting for 115 days. That's shorter than researching an old doctrine with a research bonus, but you had to pay 40 army XP for it which you can't spend on something else now, and research times of other techs have been increased to compensate for the saved time.

Also something to remember is that you can only get that 0.35 daily gain for one branch. If you use all high command slots for the army, your air experience gain is limited to just 0.09 daily gain with air exercise XP being close to zero, and assuming you don't want to switch out your army theorist to save PP you'll have to wait for one and a half year for *one* air doctrine tech. And that is if you have a discount so it only costs 50 air XP. Without discount it takes three years. So you either get land doctrines or air doctrines, not both. Unless of course... you're a fascist/communist nation and can send air volunteers to Spain or China/Japan, since that hasn't been nerfed. Effectively nerfing democracies big time by removing their ability to get air doctrines before the war, while fascists can continue as usual, although at a reduced rate. Pre-NSB air doctrines could be researched somewhat decently even without boosts due to their shorter research time compared to land doctrines.

At least naval XP can be grinded decently through ship exercise.
 
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I'm having a lot of fun so far. I feel like I have a lot more useage for points of all kinds and a greater need for them. But at the same time, they are fairly easily generated thru combat / volunteers / advisors etc.
 
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I'm having a lot of fun so far. I feel like I have a lot more useage for points of all kinds and a greater need for them. But at the same time, they are fairly easily generated thru combat / volunteers / advisors etc.
As a democratic or non-aligned nation that can't send volunteers early game, I find it almost impossible to generate. Playing as Britain for my first playthrough meant I couldn't use any of the new features (supply was wonky due to ports, no XP gain until the war, and therefore no doctrine research)
 
As a democratic or non-aligned nation that can't send volunteers early game, I find it almost impossible to generate. Playing as Britain for my first playthrough meant I couldn't use any of the new features (supply was wonky due to ports, no XP gain until the war, and therefore no doctrine research)
I am playing as the historical UK too and have been able to generate a reasonable amount of land and air XP prior to the war, by using advisers and an attaché. I am choosing to spend it all on specialist templates and fighter upgrades instead of doctrines, which may hurt me later, but generating the XP didn't feel like a big problem (if anything it was easier).

Obviously naval XP is never going to be an issue for the UK.
 
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I have played three games all as Soviet union and I have to say its quite frustrating. The Spanish civil war now regularly ends in 1937 because the fascists just overrun the Republicans with the new supply system. I tried to turn it as the Soviet union even wiped out the Southern part but they just kept pushing onward overrunning Madrid and the rest of the country nonetheless.
To help the Rep Spain you need to send bomber and CAS, and equip your troops with AA.
 
I am playing as the historical UK too and have been able to generate a reasonable amount of land and air XP prior to the war, by using advisers and an attaché. I am choosing to spend it all on specialist templates and fighter upgrades instead of doctrines, which may hurt me later, but generating the XP didn't feel like a big problem (if anything it was easier).

Obviously naval XP is never going to be an issue for the UK.
Having played UK a lot pre-NSB, it seems like attachés would gave a lot of experience.

Prepatch I'd need the XP for very different templates. Now that the basic templates seem ok, I think the XP generation is ok. If you get a theorist for your doctrine plus focuses for 50% off you can pick up doctrines for less.

I guess I actually prefer the new system.

Old system was basically done by 1940.

I hope small divisions will be viable again. If you don't have to make 20 or 40w divisions then that saves XP.
 
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I am playing as the historical UK too and have been able to generate a reasonable amount of land and air XP prior to the war, by using advisers and an attaché. I am choosing to spend it all on specialist templates and fighter upgrades instead of doctrines, which may hurt me later, but generating the XP didn't feel like a big problem (if anything it was easier).

Obviously naval XP is never going to be an issue for the UK.
If you have the PP to spare to hire all those advisors. I'm pretty sure attachés in China are still going to be the best way to get XP as democracies, it's just 100 PP and gets you land + air XP as well as 10% war support - even with the nerfs. With the 1.2 XP/day combat cap and 15% XP share from attachés you should get up to 0.18 daily army XP. But the gap between advisors and attaché is a lot smaller than before at least.

Still, I think the system is far from perfect, especially non-aligned/democratic countries with PP debuffs or unique mechanics that require PP will struggle to get any doctrine tech done before the war. Historical UK is probably the strongest here since they have neither of those things, and they also get a silent workhorse on a -10% discount and bonus PP from Baldwin early on. Unless Pdx intended that only select countries should be able to get doctrines before 1939, the numbers need some polishing.
 
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In addition, choosing an appropriate army spirit allows you to edit templates for certain battalion types for free.
I'm afraid this is less useful than it initially sounds-
You can only get "edit spirits" for engineer companies, cavalry or special forces. So no regular infantry, artillery, mot/mech or tanks. The spirits cost 50 army XP each and if you want to switch back to your previous spirit it will cost you another 50. Still, there should be situations where it's useful because you wanted to get that spirit anyway for its buffs (e.g. the cavalry spirit reduces supply combat penalties on core territory by -20%, which should be pretty good for Chinese nations).
 
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I'm afraid this is less useful than it initially sounds-
You can only get "edit spirits" for engineer companies, cavalry or special forces. So no regular infantry, artillery, mot/mech or tanks. The spirits cost 50 army XP each and if you want to switch back to your previous spirit it will cost you another 50. Still, there should be situations where it's useful because you wanted to get that spirit anyway for its buffs (e.g. the cavalry spirit reduces supply combat penalties on core territory by -20%, which should be pretty good for Chinese nations).
It depends on doctrine, there's a unique spirit you get for each doctrine. Indeed, the one you unlock by having mobile warfare allows you to freely edit motorized, mechanized, and tank templates.
 
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I have also played as the Netherlands but I have had a very different experience. I have struggled to obtained naval experience. I also have had some issues with surface raiding and the use of the patrol mission with the strike force. It seems that now it is much harder to spot convoys for the surface raiders and it is also harder for the patrol ships to spot enemy task forces. I have used the same ship composition to great effect in previous games but after this update they are useless. I use light cruiser with 41 knots with two float planes and radar.
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