Better Late than Never
Just looking at the screen again is glorious and it brings back the memories. I haven’t played HoI for ten years but I’m hoping it’s like riding a bike. For those of you have never played before the first thing you’ll notice is that provinces are much fewer than in HoI2 or 3. Germany only has thirty provinces, Belgium three! Some things stay the same, Luxemburg has only a single province.
First things first let’s look at research. There are tons of technologies to choose from. It can be tricky to figure out what the prerequisites for certain techs are. Research doesn’t use tech teams or leadership but IC. This feature makes the USA very powerful as the game goes on. Later on in the game the USA has enough IC to research all technologies at once, maybe I should have played as them! There aren’t any penalties for researching technology ahead of its time either.
I'll concentrate on infantry technologies initially. Later on vehicle, light aircraft, and industrial technologies will be given priority to.
Already in production are; couple of battleships, some cruisers, and a few destroyers. The navy won’t play a large role in the German conquest, at least not at the beginning. Germany starts out being able to build carriers if it choses!
Germany starts with a large army and it is sent to Berlin to be better organized. The largest and most effective formation is a group of twelve divisions commanded by a field general. I’ll set up my initial forces in such a manner, later on I’ll probably split them up into smaller armies. Nine infantry divisions with an attached artillery brigade are put into production. The only way to attach a brigade to a division is when it is first built. Brigades cannot be added or removed later.
The Re-Occupation of the Rhineland event occurs. I do recall that events in Hearts of Iron generally come at their historical times and there aren’t many choices if any at all. So war with Poland will come on September 1, 1939
Germany has a large stockpile of all resources (coal, steel, rubber, and oil) but is losing steel daily. Let’s see if Germany can get some more steel from trading. Trading works on a world market system. The world market has its own stockpile of resources so if there isn’t any steel in the stockpile Germany can’t trade for any. Fortunately there is steel in the world market stockpile. You simply make an offer and maybe you’ll get what you want. You can’t accept or decline deals you make an offer and maybe it will work. The lowest you can go is 1:1 so I can offer 100 coals for 100 steel but not 50 coals for 100 steel. Other nations have offers so I’m guessing that better offers get to go first. I made several large offers but to no effect, maybe if I offer several smaller offers but that too doesn't work. I later realized the problem is the tooltip box, when I hover over steel it only states what is produced at HOME not what is traded in. When I look at the actual numbers steel is going up so the offers are working. Really makes me appreciate the little details Paradox did for HoI2. Something as simple as changing the color of the resource number to red from green, when your losing resources, makes a big difference.
The world market is really useful as Germany. Since we trade with the world market and not directly with countries, Germany will able to get resources from nations they are at war with (you can see why trading was revamped in HoI2) so we can count on being well supplied throughout the game. Germany doesn't get it entirely its own way though. For instance Sweden if offering 300 steel for 150 coal, which is a great deal for Germany but we aren’t allowed to trade directly with Sweden.
There is only four ways to spend IC; consumer goods, supplies, research, and production. Note that this SS if from later in the game and why production is low.
The six infantry divisions with attached artillery finish and three more are added to production, the remaining IC is put into research. A little later the final three divisions with artillery finish and six regular infantry divisions are added to the queue. I start building a land fort along the French border to see what it costs only to find out it isn’t clear. I also find out province improvements cannot be canceled, guess that fort is here to stay.
The Spanish Civil War starts and Germans sends aid to Franco. We can do much more for our fascist ally though. The 4. Armee has six divisions and is sent to Nationalists Spain as an expeditionary force. The 4. Armee is now loaned to the Nationalist but I can still control this force. The Armee boards the Kriegsmarine transports and is shipped to Spain. The 4. Armee will take Madrid which is controlled by the Republicans. The downside to using an Expeditionary force in this manner is I cannot see into any adjacent provinces so its a guessing game were the enemy is.
The 4. Armee makes it to Madrid and wins the battle easily. After the victory the Armee takes Salamanca for the Nationalists and continues on towards Valladolid. Resistance is light and the disorganized Republicans don’t put up much of a fight.
No one ever expects the von Rundstedt expedition!
Valencia is the new capital of Republican Spain so it’s next target. After a short battle Valencia is won for the Nationalists. However, three divisions were lost. I forgot that you need to manually reinforce your divisions, a costly reminder.
Three divisions with artillery are added into the queue (to replace loses in Spain) along with six regular divisions. The German Expeditionary Force continues to defeat Republicans and is currently heading for Seville, it should be the final nail in the coffin.
Nationalist Spain annexes Republican Spain ending the war. With victory secured the 4. Armee is returned to German control and the Kriegsmarine is dispatched to bring them home.
One tactical and two fighters are added to production. I don’t recall much about the air force. There are many types of aircraft to build; interceptors, multirole, fighters, transports, strategic, dive, tactical, naval, and torpedo planes. I’ll need to play around to see what the optimal amount of wings should go into a formation, for now three we’ll be used. More fighters and bombers will need to be built but that will come later.
I'm feeling more secure about my resources so I build a full round of IC (this is only 30 because that’s all the provinces Germany has). With research being done by IC it is that much more important to maximize the amount Germany has.
A concern going further into the game is how strong I need to make Germany. France isn’t a pushover, I do remember that at least it wasn’t in earlier patches. My military strength seems to be sufficient for now. In the west I have twelve divisions on the border compared to France’s three. In the east Germany has forty eight divisions compared to Poland’s fourteen.
Germany is off to a good start, despite losing three divisions in Spain, but more forces will be needed for the war with the west. More armor will be needed to for a quick blitz into Poland and France.
Thanks for reading!