AOD still the best choice?

[Mgundry]

Hello,

I have been out of the HOI2 for some time and looking to get back into it. My hard copy has long since disappeared so I am looking to purchase AOD this week but wanted to get your opinions and/or positive reinforcement that AOD is still the better decision for the best game play experience. There are ample comparison post on the web, but I’m looking for your biased support. I spent a lot more time with AOD in days past. A concern is the community involvement left with AOD compared to DH, but this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

I prefer AoD for the way supply & logisitics are handled, rather then units going from sully supplied to not at all, they have their own stockpiles which is affected by combat, where they are & what type of unit they are.

Also loving the advanced sliders as I like doing a bit of micro management.

The importance of infrastructure is far greater as it helps with resources & industrial output alongside supply lines.

I'm also just far more used to AoD, to be honest I haven't given DH a proper go.

Also, I've found a great group of people to play online with!

 

[Mgundry]

Thanks for the reply. I made my Steam purchase yesterday and should get some time in next week. Do you recommend any mandatory mods, such as improved 1936 or anything specific. I know Core was popular as well.

 

[Pioniere]

I would recommend testing both of them. For me it’s not that much of a AOD vs dh its more AOD/DH vs hoi3 and perhaps hoi4.
AOD and darkest hour has different focus. The list would be long, but I could list a few. Darkest hour has a nice map and some interesting events. DH has nice shields its AI is all right, but often easy to trick.

The AI in AOD is for me often more of a challenging than in DH. As Mr_B0narpte pointed out the importance of infrastructure*. The AOD team have worked high and low on the game for some time. We have stamped out bugs added many new elements over the last years. Some changes have been given positive critics other less happy. Even so you should get both on a steam sale.

improved 1936 and the Core has been used a lot for sure. IIRC the improved 1936 has gotten a update not so long ago, but vanila AOD 1.10 would nice game to.
When the 1.11 for AOD is finished it’s almost a DCL or more.

 

[Titan79]

Do you recommend any mandatory mods, such as improved 1936 or anything specific.

Well, somebody might suggest you the Tripartite Pack, although you should wait for its author to update it to the latest AoD patch...

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Thanks for the reply. I made my Steam purchase yesterday and should get some time in next week. Do you recommend any mandatory mods, such as improved 1936 or anything specific. I know Core was popular as well.

I recommend Improved 1936 as it's dramatically improved the AI. In 'vanilla' I think the focus of the AI is to make the game pan out relatively historically (but not sure how accurately it does that to be honest); but the aim of the Improved 1936 is to make the AI as 'human-like' as possible. I.e. very efficient research & production for every single nation in the game. It is still centred around a historical World War 2 (i.e. peace in Europe until 30 August 1939), but all AIs are geared to be very efficient & much stronger then their 'vanilla' counterparts.

Also the mod has added a lot of historical nations, biggest one being India. It's also added a lot of historical events, edited the combat modifiers to make terrain more important, and also changed the world's industrial output & resource base to make resources a lot more important, as they were IRL.

 

[Mgundry]

Thanks Mr. B0narpte. I played through a vanilla game until just before Barbarossa. I am willing start over with the 1936 mod as it seems to add some solid improvements. I’ve generally always played Germany in my games, is that the consensus here or are there other fav nations to play?

 

[stevep]

Thanks Mr. B0narpte. I played through a vanilla game until just before Barbarossa. I am willing start over with the 1936 mod as it seems to add some solid improvements. I’ve generally always played Germany in my games, is that the consensus here or are there other fav nations to play?

Possibly the easiest of the major powers to play is Russia as it only has to deal with one front - at least for a roughly historical war - and can basically ignore the navy. Also when playing solo it won't be in a major war until summer 41 so you have more time to develop the economy and army. Although there are problems, such as what you do with the purge and the winter war. Diplomacy is relatively easy as well in that everybody hates you so much its pretty much worthless trying to win anyone over or prevent the historical Axis minor powers attacking you.

Possibly the US as an even more secure power but then you have to worry about naval combat and supply lines and also fighting against the European Axis and Japan.

Most people do play Germany so there is probably more advice from the board about its play. As only an occasional player, who for RL reasons hasn't touched the game for over a year I've only played it once, with problems and that was in the vanilla so not the most knowledgeable. Hopefully will get back to it at some stage.

 

[Commander666]

I’ve generally always played Germany in my games, is that the consensus here or are there other fav nations to play?

I have found all the majors to be interesting because of their unique differences and challenges. Germany is probably the most played and is great as the instigator of different strategies. But learning to play Soviets best is a very good learning experience, while the complexities of playing UK and Japan give fresh games. Finally, learning to play the USA correctly might be taking the learning curve to the next dimension - or, at least, it greatly helps to know how the other countries play.