First, Quill18 is a total noob (as regards HOI3). Do NOT watch him. Ever. If you want to learn about HOI3, that is. Haven't watched him play other games after giving watching him play TFH - is he good at other Pdox/strategy games?
Second, HOI3 is about grand scale WW2 combat. You play it ALL parts of it on manual. Yes, ALL of it.
Third, start Germany, 1936. Germany is super OP and very easy for new players.
Click Production.
Click Division.
Div has 4 parts, but fuck it for now.
Click infantry.
OK, so now your div has 1 regiment (max 4 for now).
On the right are stats - movement, attack, how much shit it consumes, how much gasoline it drinks (if any), its speed.
Above those, there is a SMALL SQUARE and below it in small text - TERRAIN.
Hover your mouse over it.
Makes sense, right - infantry going thru a difficult terrain is slow, and has trouble attacking mountains.
Click "X" on the infantry and click light armour.
Look at stats, look at what terrain it feels best in (protip - tanks hate mountains, swamps, crossing rivers).
Now do same for ENGineer - notice that this bad boy gives you BONUSES for difficult terrain.
Protip - armoured car gives you a speed bonus for a division it is in.
Now, close Production tab and open Technologt tab.
Place mouse over Cavalry Small Arms. Researching this tech gives you better soft attack.
Soft units are NOT tanks - hence, they are soft. Get it?
Look over ALL the techs and see what they do.
When in doubt over what something means, internet is your friend.
Now, click the "~" (tilde) button.
Lets cheat, for testing purposes only.
Write: instantresearch and hit enter.
Hit "~" again to close cheat screen.
Make a division (for example, standard infantry - INF INF INF ART).
Now choose to research the "Small Arms" tech. When the tech researches, you will get a nice popup window.
PAUSE THE GAME by hitting space.
Right click on the tech researched window and check Popup and Pause.
Now it will pause every time it researches a tech (as it should).
Go back to your prod screen and see how your division has improved (or not... or got worse - maybe slower?).
Experiment with tech levels and division compositions and see what works best for your playstyle (country dependent).
Now, once you know a bit more, start the game for realz, yo.
As Germany, 1936 (it is so OP it is not even funny).
At game paused, change all your ministers to better ones, put spies on your country to 3 tabs counterintel and 1 tab support party org. And place units in building queue, at least as many as you can build.
Do your research - infantry and armor then land doctrines making them better. Then fighters then bombers then air doctrines making them better.
Then do whatever techs you want (of course some are better than others, do your own research - as always, internet is your friend. Except for Quill18).
So once war starts - what then?
Name of the game in WW2 here in game and in reality is encirclement. Encircled units take penalty (10%) from each attack they are flanked with, and on top of that 10% for being totally encircled.
You want to overrun. Once an enemy breaks and withdraws, send your fastest unit to the province it is going to. If it is faster than enemy, enemy is DOA.
If enemy cannot retreat, i.e. it is surrounded, it will die.
Tactical bombers go after enemy infantry. For them, set target as ONE PROVINCE.
Close Air Support (Stuka, Jabos, Typhoons, P47's, IL2) go after enemy tank units. Especially heavy tanks.
Fighters you can set for several regions to cover ALL your troops and all regions where you are bombing enemy.
You want to capture enemy country's Victory Points to conquer them. Historically, that is what happened, as when yuo capture enough enemy VP's and their will to resist breaks.
That's it.
It's simple.
Again, if you are unsure of something, internet is your friend.
Once you get into the swing of things, you will realize that the AI generals have the level of intellect of Quill18 and will look for mods to improve your gameplay experience.
HOI3, alongside Victoria 2, are the best strategy computer games of all time, alongside Civilization 4 with all DLC's.
At the beginning you need to invest a bit of effort into learning it, but the payoff is huge in enjoyment IMO.
It is the ONLY game which allows you, the player, to design your own unit types and OOB for your nation and then to hurl your designs/teched up units into battle.
The only one in existence.
IMO HOI2 had too few provinces/regions, which did not really allow any kind of maneuver typical of WW2. So I do not consider it a war game/WW2 strategy game.
There are better WW2 war games, with much more realism and detail, but, alas, they do not allow the player to design his own division types, place his own commanders, make his own OOB.
Therefore even hardcore players who play games such as Gary Grigsby's War in the East are interested in the HOI franchise.
Here's some youtubers who know WTF they are doing:
Marco is a legend in the community - he does things like conquer the world with Albania, Tibet etc:
Look him up on youtube:
marcoan7onio
He breaks the game TBH - he is too good at exploiting game mechanics and AI.
On youtube: AlexLifeson1985
Alex is like his protege/son (think of him like Luke... and Marco as Vader
)
Not as pro but good. Plays mostly Black Ice now, like most people.
And there's Magnus, usually Polish strategy gamers youtubers are good and he is pretty good now at HOI3 (he plays Black Ice, not vanilla):
On youtube:
BenjaminMagnusGames
Now I will give you some light reading for homework
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Command_structure
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Germany_strategy_guide
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Leader_traits
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Air_combat_reference
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Air_combat_reference
Logistics and supply is perhaps the 2nd most important thing to understand in this game
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Logistics_reference
These are just to show you how fun this game can be:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/tomorrow-the-world-a-german-aar.599810/
This one is good for some tricks (some are outdated?):
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/every-trick-in-the-book-germany-1936.615088/
PSPS
I tried linking directly to their playlists but this forum is set to link directly to videos, and linking to their video playlist gives a blank youtube error screen.
Second, HOI3 is about grand scale WW2 combat. You play it ALL parts of it on manual. Yes, ALL of it.
Third, start Germany, 1936. Germany is super OP and very easy for new players.
Click Production.
Click Division.
Div has 4 parts, but fuck it for now.
Click infantry.
OK, so now your div has 1 regiment (max 4 for now).
On the right are stats - movement, attack, how much shit it consumes, how much gasoline it drinks (if any), its speed.
Above those, there is a SMALL SQUARE and below it in small text - TERRAIN.
Hover your mouse over it.
Makes sense, right - infantry going thru a difficult terrain is slow, and has trouble attacking mountains.
Click "X" on the infantry and click light armour.
Look at stats, look at what terrain it feels best in (protip - tanks hate mountains, swamps, crossing rivers).
Now do same for ENGineer - notice that this bad boy gives you BONUSES for difficult terrain.
Protip - armoured car gives you a speed bonus for a division it is in.
Now, close Production tab and open Technologt tab.
Place mouse over Cavalry Small Arms. Researching this tech gives you better soft attack.
Soft units are NOT tanks - hence, they are soft. Get it?
Look over ALL the techs and see what they do.
When in doubt over what something means, internet is your friend.
Now, click the "~" (tilde) button.
Lets cheat, for testing purposes only.
Write: instantresearch and hit enter.
Hit "~" again to close cheat screen.
Make a division (for example, standard infantry - INF INF INF ART).
Now choose to research the "Small Arms" tech. When the tech researches, you will get a nice popup window.
PAUSE THE GAME by hitting space.
Right click on the tech researched window and check Popup and Pause.
Now it will pause every time it researches a tech (as it should).
Go back to your prod screen and see how your division has improved (or not... or got worse - maybe slower?).
Experiment with tech levels and division compositions and see what works best for your playstyle (country dependent).
Now, once you know a bit more, start the game for realz, yo.
As Germany, 1936 (it is so OP it is not even funny).
At game paused, change all your ministers to better ones, put spies on your country to 3 tabs counterintel and 1 tab support party org. And place units in building queue, at least as many as you can build.
Do your research - infantry and armor then land doctrines making them better. Then fighters then bombers then air doctrines making them better.
Then do whatever techs you want (of course some are better than others, do your own research - as always, internet is your friend. Except for Quill18).
So once war starts - what then?
Name of the game in WW2 here in game and in reality is encirclement. Encircled units take penalty (10%) from each attack they are flanked with, and on top of that 10% for being totally encircled.
You want to overrun. Once an enemy breaks and withdraws, send your fastest unit to the province it is going to. If it is faster than enemy, enemy is DOA.
If enemy cannot retreat, i.e. it is surrounded, it will die.
Tactical bombers go after enemy infantry. For them, set target as ONE PROVINCE.
Close Air Support (Stuka, Jabos, Typhoons, P47's, IL2) go after enemy tank units. Especially heavy tanks.
Fighters you can set for several regions to cover ALL your troops and all regions where you are bombing enemy.
You want to capture enemy country's Victory Points to conquer them. Historically, that is what happened, as when yuo capture enough enemy VP's and their will to resist breaks.
That's it.
It's simple.
Again, if you are unsure of something, internet is your friend.
Once you get into the swing of things, you will realize that the AI generals have the level of intellect of Quill18 and will look for mods to improve your gameplay experience.
HOI3, alongside Victoria 2, are the best strategy computer games of all time, alongside Civilization 4 with all DLC's.
At the beginning you need to invest a bit of effort into learning it, but the payoff is huge in enjoyment IMO.
It is the ONLY game which allows you, the player, to design your own unit types and OOB for your nation and then to hurl your designs/teched up units into battle.
The only one in existence.
IMO HOI2 had too few provinces/regions, which did not really allow any kind of maneuver typical of WW2. So I do not consider it a war game/WW2 strategy game.
There are better WW2 war games, with much more realism and detail, but, alas, they do not allow the player to design his own division types, place his own commanders, make his own OOB.
Therefore even hardcore players who play games such as Gary Grigsby's War in the East are interested in the HOI franchise.
Here's some youtubers who know WTF they are doing:
Marco is a legend in the community - he does things like conquer the world with Albania, Tibet etc:
Look him up on youtube:
marcoan7onio
He breaks the game TBH - he is too good at exploiting game mechanics and AI.
On youtube: AlexLifeson1985
Alex is like his protege/son (think of him like Luke... and Marco as Vader
)Not as pro but good. Plays mostly Black Ice now, like most people.
And there's Magnus, usually Polish strategy gamers youtubers are good and he is pretty good now at HOI3 (he plays Black Ice, not vanilla):
On youtube:
BenjaminMagnusGames
Now I will give you some light reading for homework
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Command_structure
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Germany_strategy_guide
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Leader_traits
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Air_combat_reference
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Air_combat_reference
Logistics and supply is perhaps the 2nd most important thing to understand in this game
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Logistics_reference
These are just to show you how fun this game can be:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/tomorrow-the-world-a-german-aar.599810/
This one is good for some tricks (some are outdated?):
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/every-trick-in-the-book-germany-1936.615088/
PSPS
I tried linking directly to their playlists but this forum is set to link directly to videos, and linking to their video playlist gives a blank youtube error screen.
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