I think I'll try this out instead right off the bat, just so I can get an idea of what a more intense situation feels like before getting into anything I want to last for a campaign. You do learn more from losing than you do from winning after all.
Good country to start with as a new player?
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Here's my response from another topic that touches the matter:
Basically you need a nation that:
- is not too big to overwhelm you with multiple fronts, big-scale micromanagement, worldwide interferences etc.
- is not to small to let you feel you have an impact on the course of history
- has interest in all types of warfare to let you learn dealing with army, navy and air forces
- is relatively safe
- has a decent industrial base
- starts war quite early to let you make some mistakes and learn before big actors join
I'd say Italy suits best. In addition, there is no shame if you fail as Italy
Another option is to start as a land-focused country and neglect learning naval warfare for later games. In such case one of the Balkan states (+ Hungary) might be fine to play as a German support while trying to squeeze something for you.
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About some nations mentioned here by others:
Canada and Turkey are fine. Both are versatile; as Canada you can learn every aspect of the game; as Turkey you will probably have to neglect navy and the game may be more challenging (depends on chosen alignment).
USA is too overwhelming. You have two fronts to keep an eye on and there is management of this colossus. Plus you join the war relatively lately. Definitely not the best pick.
UK, on the other hand is very good for learning. It is not as complicated as the USA because your empire is self-managing; you can focus on European and African theatres and be sure that your dominions will do fine against Japan. Well, even if they fail, there is still your big American ally to whom you can leave all Pacific-related problems.
People suggested Brazil but honestly, what can you learn by playing there? Although materialising Getulio Vargas' wet dreams about Brazil joining the club of great powers seems encouraging, you may end up sitting meekly, building factories and beating weak neighbours without much effort. Imgaine countries like Paraguay with outdated materiel, without tanks, planes etc. just with poor basic infantry. You should encounter worthy opponents equipped with different weapons that forces you to counter them by adjusting your own armed forces. You won't find it in South America, I'm afraid. Waging war there seems effortless.
Basically you need a nation that:
- is not too big to overwhelm you with multiple fronts, big-scale micromanagement, worldwide interferences etc.
- is not to small to let you feel you have an impact on the course of history
- has interest in all types of warfare to let you learn dealing with army, navy and air forces
- is relatively safe
- has a decent industrial base
- starts war quite early to let you make some mistakes and learn before big actors join
I'd say Italy suits best. In addition, there is no shame if you fail as Italy
Another option is to start as a land-focused country and neglect learning naval warfare for later games. In such case one of the Balkan states (+ Hungary) might be fine to play as a German support while trying to squeeze something for you.
---
About some nations mentioned here by others:
Canada and Turkey are fine. Both are versatile; as Canada you can learn every aspect of the game; as Turkey you will probably have to neglect navy and the game may be more challenging (depends on chosen alignment).
USA is too overwhelming. You have two fronts to keep an eye on and there is management of this colossus. Plus you join the war relatively lately. Definitely not the best pick.
UK, on the other hand is very good for learning. It is not as complicated as the USA because your empire is self-managing; you can focus on European and African theatres and be sure that your dominions will do fine against Japan. Well, even if they fail, there is still your big American ally to whom you can leave all Pacific-related problems.
People suggested Brazil but honestly, what can you learn by playing there? Although materialising Getulio Vargas' wet dreams about Brazil joining the club of great powers seems encouraging, you may end up sitting meekly, building factories and beating weak neighbours without much effort. Imgaine countries like Paraguay with outdated materiel, without tanks, planes etc. just with poor basic infantry. You should encounter worthy opponents equipped with different weapons that forces you to counter them by adjusting your own armed forces. You won't find it in South America, I'm afraid. Waging war there seems effortless.
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First I disagree with the suggestions of a lot of posters here: do not believe them!! I ve been playing since Hoi2 and I will comment why I disagree
Horrible countries to start with that have been suggested are:
- UK (U fight all over the world, enormous amount of provinces, the difficult trick of doing invasions is best not smthing to do as a newby)
- USA (Many provinces, requires too much management and way too slow start for players to start learning combat and other essential things)
- Soviet Union (Even experienced players gets drowned by trying to manage this giant, and overwhelmed by looking at the map/frontline sizes/army sizes/...)
- Japan (Naval invasions to start with, tricky resource income, tricky supply situations in China & very difficult navy fight with the US)
- Brasil (This is not HOI1/2/3 democratic countries can not delcare war easely, this is why I would not recommend this country. Besides minor nations don't get any flavour that the major countries get: they get a general focus tree, general units, ... . It also takes a lot of time to get into the war.)
Very good ones are:
+ Germany (Steady build up from smaller to bigger foes, gets you thrown into combat on time to learn from your mistakes and you controll when the war starts as you will be the main agressor and most importantly you get to test just about everything. Recommended is to try watching After Action Reports (AARs) = youtube videos about another player showing how to play Germany and then you copy how that player did it (this is how I learned to play both HOI2 and HOI3).
+ Italy (You also choose your entry in the war & you get to pick a fight with a smaller nation first)
You learn by trying and failing, so avoiding the conflict is not how you learn best. I agree with what most of the player above said: you need something managable, so you can build up from it. Its no disgrace losing as Germany after Poland, you learn and improve.
for me a good tutorial was try to get far with Germany step by step:
1st step = Poland . See if you can manage to build up an army & a plan to defeat it. Beating Poland is a good tuturial, because as Germany you don't start with a big army and you are able to build up your forces steadily. You can start by only focussing on your army and air force and if you dare you can involve your fleet. (This was the Tutorial of HOI2 and it worked well in my opinion)
2nd step = France. If you managed to beat Poland then beating France will be your first real challenge
And if all this fails: just do the fucking tutorial, there s a reason it is there.
Horrible countries to start with that have been suggested are:
- UK (U fight all over the world, enormous amount of provinces, the difficult trick of doing invasions is best not smthing to do as a newby)
- USA (Many provinces, requires too much management and way too slow start for players to start learning combat and other essential things)
- Soviet Union (Even experienced players gets drowned by trying to manage this giant, and overwhelmed by looking at the map/frontline sizes/army sizes/...)
- Japan (Naval invasions to start with, tricky resource income, tricky supply situations in China & very difficult navy fight with the US)
- Brasil (This is not HOI1/2/3 democratic countries can not delcare war easely, this is why I would not recommend this country. Besides minor nations don't get any flavour that the major countries get: they get a general focus tree, general units, ... . It also takes a lot of time to get into the war.)
Very good ones are:
+ Germany (Steady build up from smaller to bigger foes, gets you thrown into combat on time to learn from your mistakes and you controll when the war starts as you will be the main agressor and most importantly you get to test just about everything. Recommended is to try watching After Action Reports (AARs) = youtube videos about another player showing how to play Germany and then you copy how that player did it (this is how I learned to play both HOI2 and HOI3).
+ Italy (You also choose your entry in the war & you get to pick a fight with a smaller nation first)
You learn by trying and failing, so avoiding the conflict is not how you learn best. I agree with what most of the player above said: you need something managable, so you can build up from it. Its no disgrace losing as Germany after Poland, you learn and improve.
for me a good tutorial was try to get far with Germany step by step:
1st step = Poland . See if you can manage to build up an army & a plan to defeat it. Beating Poland is a good tuturial, because as Germany you don't start with a big army and you are able to build up your forces steadily. You can start by only focussing on your army and air force and if you dare you can involve your fleet. (This was the Tutorial of HOI2 and it worked well in my opinion)
2nd step = France. If you managed to beat Poland then beating France will be your first real challenge
And if all this fails: just do the fucking tutorial, there s a reason it is there.
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HOI3 is probably the most difficult game it the series, so even for veteran HOI2 players this was a hard game. It was very difficult to manage everything.
This was not due to your country choice but rather due to game design making big countries hard to play, hell for me the army setup for invading poland took me half a day of my precious time.
I think it is a personal choice:
If you like to dive fast and deep into the game without fear of getting a bloody nose with your first trys: Germany.
If you like to just test everything from a save spot: Canada.
If you like to dive fast and deep into the game without fear of getting a bloody nose with your first trys: Germany.
If you like to just test everything from a save spot: Canada.
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Glad to find this thread since I was wondering the same as the OP. Experienced player of EU, CK and Stellaris (well, only 100 hours as no one's experienced yet ), but bounced off HoI3 pretty badly.
Italy sounds like a good first choice. Wouldn't want a nation too far removed from the action, but also not one with a million things to keep track of.
), but bounced off HoI3 pretty badly.Italy sounds like a good first choice. Wouldn't want a nation too far removed from the action, but also not one with a million things to keep track of.
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Glad to find this thread since I was wondering the same as the OP. Experienced player of EU, CK and Stellaris (well, only 100 hours as no one's experienced yet
Italy sounds like a good first choice. Wouldn't want a nation too far removed from the action, but also not one with a million things to keep track of.
I think a lot of people bounced of HOI3 for a lot of good reasons, but HOI4 looks to be a lot better to get into
But Germany i think is a good choice too as others has mentioned. It has a very natural growth to it as you go along. All you need to focus on is the Army and Airforce. And remeber that encirclements are always good (as long as you do them that is )
I'm not 100% sure getting curb stomped by Germany early on is a nice way to ease into HOI....
If it is then can I recommend Poland as a good starting nation
Some of the posters here seams to think that just becouse you start whit a minor, you are doomed to forever play that same boring country. I plan to play alot of play-throughs, so what I start whit isnt all that important - I will go for bigger fishes later on anyway. And I dont mind spending a few hours to learn the game as a minor and then just scrap that game and start over. Its a game - its suppossed to be fun, ey?
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I would probably say a small country that usually don't get involved with the war from the start. Sweden, Turkey, Siam, Iran, Iraq, and then setup some small goal for you, conquer one of your neighbors or something like that
Italy got several fronts, both in Europe and in Africa which can be a little hard to keep track of, but if you play the tutorial I think you should be fine
Italy got several fronts, both in Europe and in Africa which can be a little hard to keep track of, but if you play the tutorial I think you should be fine
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I would probably say a small country that usually don't get involved with the war from the start. Sweden, Turkey, Siam, Iran, Iraq, and then setup some small goal for you, conquer one of your neighbors or something like that
Many thanks Daniel!
Thanks, get healthy... and tell the guys from the livestream today that the pause button can be their friend.I would probably say a small country that usually don't get involved with the war from the start. Sweden, Turkey, Siam, Iran, Iraq, and then setup some small goal for you, conquer one of your neighbors or something like that
Italy got several fronts, both in Europe and in Africa which can be a little hard to keep track of, but if you play the tutorial I think you should be fine
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The attraction and risk of Italy is that there are many paths that could be taken, also that sooner or later you fight the British. Based on HOI3 experience, I'm playing Italy first in HOI 4.
The advantage of Brazil over European minors is that you can do what you want without outside interruption, until you get involved with the world. Lots of opportunities for battle plan and battle practice and tinkering where a mistake is not fatal.
There is a Communist Brazil Youtube Let's play worth watching - 4 episodes as of this morning. Campaign moves quickly once it goes Red. Won't spoiler how things tie in with Europe.
Brazil has always had a naval focus because of its difficult topography, and in game so it starts with a small fleet, air force, and army with ample manpower due to its large population, enough industry to start a war, and a world apparently indifferent to its communist socialist calls upon its neighbors.
The advantage of Brazil over European minors is that you can do what you want without outside interruption, until you get involved with the world. Lots of opportunities for battle plan and battle practice and tinkering where a mistake is not fatal.
There is a Communist Brazil Youtube Let's play worth watching - 4 episodes as of this morning. Campaign moves quickly once it goes Red. Won't spoiler how things tie in with Europe.
Brazil has always had a naval focus because of its difficult topography, and in game so it starts with a small fleet, air force, and army with ample manpower due to its large population, enough industry to start a war, and a world apparently indifferent to its communist socialist calls upon its neighbors.