HOI2 (all flavors) vet, just starting HOI3 - where to start?

[James Mason]

This might seem like a dumb question, but are the various versions of HOI3 (Vanilla(?), FTM, TFH, etc.) mutually compatible? Is there a "final" version of HOI3 that is generally considered "the best"? Or are certain versions better to play as a certain side, like play FTH as Russian, TFH as Britain, or what? Dies Ires(sp?) as German?

I'm an HOI2 vet, and played it to death through all the various versions, but settled on "Arsenal of Democracy" as the version to easily install (like on work computer) without bothering with mods and whatnot. That's what I want for HOI3...

Suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

 

[JudgeKing]

This might seem like a dumb question, but are the various versions of HOI3 (Vanilla(?), FTM, TFH, etc.) mutually compatible? Is there a "final" version of HOI3 that is generally considered "the best"? Or are certain versions better to play as a certain side, like play FTH as Russian, TFH as Britain, or what? Dies Ires(sp?) as German?

I'm an HOI2 vet, and played it to death through all the various versions, but settled on "Arsenal of Democracy" as the version to easily install (like on work computer) without bothering with mods and whatnot. That's what I want for HOI3...

Suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

SF, FTM, and TFH are all expansions of the base game. Each one requires base HOI3 and the preceding expansions.

 

[Kovax]

The base game, unpatched, was virtually unplayable. A few trivial details were often missing, like WWII. Patched up to 1.4, it was still buggy, but mostly playable.

The Semper Fi expansion fixed a lot more bugs (adding a few of its own), and kept most of the base game mechanics from the original release. I liked that version a lot, once the final patch for it was installed. It's required in order to install FTM.

For the Motherland made a few significant changes to gameplay that I didn't like, but fixed a few more issues and added a couple of features that mostly made up for the changes. This, to me, was the least "desirable" expansion, but you need it to install TFH.

Their Finest Hour made major changes to gameplay (the rebalancing of Politics/Trade/Neutrality/Threat was NOT to my liking), but added numerous features that I find difficult to give up now that I've played them. If I could have the shiny new features of TFH with the same basic gameplay as SF, I'd be very happy. Unfortunately, I can't, so I'm not. At least I'd rather play TFH than FTM.

Your opinion may vary widely from mine.

 

[Vegas2010]

Get SF, FTM, and TFH don't bother with the others like Dies Iraes since its not compatible with TFH.