How you start your game

[pdBravo]

Just wondering how others start their HOI3 game. Are there things you do every time? Or do you vary a lot?

For me, I play as UK mostly, and this is how I start my (1936) game.

First, I made a couple of mods to the original files. I fixed the '23th' infantry to '23rd' which is a little irritating haha.
I also changed the destroyer names from '1st ....' etc to some historical destroyer names from WWII. I know they are representative of flotillas and not individual ships, but having names gives some flavour for me, and I enjoy that.
I also changed the destroyer names of ships yet to be built to real destroyer names.

If anybody is interested in that:

Spoiler

"HMS Acasta"
"HMS Achates"
"HMS Acheron"
"HMS Active"
"HMS Afridi"
"HMS Amazon"
"HMS Ambuscade"
"HMS Antelope"
"HMS Anthony"
"HMS Ardent"
"HMS Armada"
"HMS Arrow"
"HMS Ashanti"
"HMS Barfleur"
"HMS Basilisk"
"HMS Beagle"
"HMS Bedouin"
"HMS Belmont"
"HMS Beverley"
"HMS Blanche"
"HMS Boadicea"
"HMS Bradford"
"HMS Brazen"
"HMS Brilliant"
"HMS Broadwater"
"HMS Broadway"
"HMS Broke"
"HMS Bruce"
"HMS Bulldog"
"HMS Burnham"
"HMS Burwell"
"HMS Cadiz"
"HMS Caesar"
"HMS Cambrian"
"HMS Cameron"
"HMS Campbell"
"HMS Campbeltown"
"HMS Camperdown"
"HMS Caprice"
"HMS Carron"
"HMS Carysfort"
"HMS Cassandra"
"HMS Castleton"
"HMS Cavalier"
"HMS Cavendish"
"HMS Chaplet"
"HMS Charity"
"HMS Charlestown"
"HMS Chequers"
"HMS Chesterfield"
"HMS Chevron"
"HMS Chieftain"
"HMS Clare"
"HMS Cockade"
"HMS Codrington"
"HMS Comet"
"HMS Contest"
"HMS Cossack"
"HMS Dainty"
"HMS Daring"
"HMS Defender"
"HMS Delight"
"HMS Diamond"
"HMS Douglas"
"HMS Duchess"
"HMS Duncan"
"HMS Eclipse"
"HMS Electra"
"HMS Encounter"
"HMS Escapade"
"HMS Escort"
"HMS Esk"
"HMS Eskimo"
"HMS Exmouth"
"HMS Fame"
"HMS Faulknor"
"HMS Fearless"
"HMS Finisterre"
"HMS Firedrake"
"HMS Foresight"
"HMS Forester"
"HMS Fury"
"HMS Gabbard"
"HMS Gallant"
"HMS Gipsy"
"HMS Glowworm"
"HMS Grafton"
"HMS Gravelines"
"HMS Grenade"
"HMS Grenville"
"HMS Greyhound"
"HMS Gurkha"
"HMS Hardy"
"HMS Harvester"
"HMS Hasty"
"HMS Havant"
"HMS Havelock"
"HMS Havock"
"HMS Hereward"
"HMS Hesperus"
"HMS Highlander"
"HMS Hostile"
"HMS Hotspur"
"HMS Hogue"
"HMS Hunter"
"HMS Hurricane"
"HMS Hyperion"
"HMS Icarus"
"HMS Ilex"
"HMS Imogen"
"HMS Imperial"
"HMS Impulsive"
"HMS Inglefield"
"HMS Intrepid"
"HMS Isis"
"HMS Ivanhoe"
"HMS Inconstant"
"HMS Ithuriel"
"HMS Jackal"
"HMS Jaguar"
"HMS Janus"
"HMS Javelin"
"HMS Jersey"
"HMS Jervis"
"HMS Juno"
"HMS Jupiter"
"HMS Kandahar"
"HMS Kashmir"
"HMS Keith"
"HMS Kelly"
"HMS Kelvin"
"HMS Kempenfelt"
"HMS Keppel"
"HMS Khartoum"
"HMS Kimberley"
"HMS Kingston"
"HMS Kipling"
"HMS Laforey"
"HMS Lagos"
"HMS Lance"
"HMS Leeds"
"HMS Legion"
"HMS Lewes"
"HMS Lightning"
"HMS Lively"
"HMS Lookout"
"HMS Loyal"
"HMS MacKay"
"HMS Mahratta"
"HMS Malcolm"
"HMS Mansfield"
"HMS Maori"
"HMS Marne"
"HMS Martin"
"HMS Mashona"
"HMS Matabele"
"HMS Matchless"
"HMS Meteor"
"HMS Milne"
"HMS Mohawk"
"HMS Montrose"
"HMS Musketeer"
"HMS Myngs"
"HMS Newark"
"HMS Newmarket"
"HMS Nubian"
"HMS Offa"
"HMS Onslaught"
"HMS Onslow"
"HMS Oribi"
"HMS Pakenham"
"HMS Paladin"
"HMS Panther"
"HMS Partridge"
"HMS Pathfinder"
"HMS Penn"
"HMS Petard"
"HMS Porcupine"
"HMS Punjabi"
"HMS Quadrant"
"HMS Quail"
"HMS Quality"
"HMS Queenborough"
"HMS Quentin"
"HMS Quiberon"
"HMS Quickmatch"
"HMS Quilliam"
"HMS Racehorse"
"HMS Raider"
"HMS Rapid"
"HMS Redoubt"
"HMS Relentless"
"HMS Rocket"
"HMS Roebuck"
"HMS Rotherham"
"HMS Sabre"
"HMS Saintes"
"HMS Saladin"
"HMS Sardonyx"
"HMS Saumarez"
"HMS Savage"
"HMS Scimitar"
"HMS Scorpion"
"HMS Scourge"
"HMS Scout"
"HMS Serapis"
"HMS Shikari"
"HMS Sikh"
"HMS Sluys"
"HMS Solebay"
"HMS Somali"
"HMS St. Kitts"
"HMS Stronghold"
"HMS Sturdy"
"HMS Swift"
"HMS Tartar"
"HMS Teazer"
"HMS Tenacious"
"HMS Tenedos"
"HMS Termagant"
"HMS Terpsichore"
"HMS Thanet"
"HMS Thracian"
"HMS Trafalgar"
"HMS Troubridge"
"HMS Tumult"
"HMS Tuscan"
"HMS Tyrian"
"HMS Ulster"
"HMS Ulysses"
"HMS Undaunted"
"HMS Undine"
"HMS Ursa"
"HMS Urchin"
"HMS Urania"
"HMS Valentine"
"HMS Valorous"
"HMS Vanessa"
"HMS Vanity"
"HMS Vanoc"
"HMS Vanquisher"
"HMS Vansittart"
"HMS Vega"
"HMS Velox"
"HMS Venetia"
"HMS Venomous"
"HMS Venus"
"HMS Verdun"
"HMS Verity"
"HMS Versatile"
"HMS Verulam"
"HMS Vesper"
"HMS Veteran"
"HMS Viceroy"
"HMS Vidette"
"HMS Vigilant"
"HMS Vimiera"
"HMS Virago"
"HMS Viscount"
"HMS Vivacious"
"HMS Volage"
"HMS Volunteer"
"HMS Vivien"
"HMS Vortigern"
"HMS Wager"
"HMS Wakeful"
"HMS Walker"
"HMS Wallace"
"HMS Walpole"
"HMS Wanderer"
"HMS Warwick"
"HMS Watchman"
"HMS Wessex"
"HMS Westcott"
"HMS Westminster"
"HMS Whelp"
"HMS Whirlwind"
"HMS Whitehall"
"HMS Whitley"
"HMS Whitshed"
"HMS Wild Swan"
"HMS Winchelsea"
"HMS Winchester"
"HMS Windsor"
"HMS Wishart"
"HMS Witch"
"HMS Witherington"
"HMS Wivern"
"HMS Wizard"
"HMS Wolfhound"
"HMS Wolsey"
"HMS Wolverine"
"HMS Worcester"
"HMS Woolston"
"HMS Wrangler"
"HMS Wren"
"HMS Wrestler"
"HMS Wryneck"
"HMS Zambesi"
"HMS Zealous"
"HMS Zebra"
"HMS Zenith"
"HMS Zephyr"
"HMS Zest"
"HMS Zodiac"
"HMS Zulu"

(disclaimer: these are from a wikipedia list, their accuracy is unlikely to be perfect - it's just flavour)

DISBAND:
Strategic bombers
Submarines

ARMY:
All units back to UK, militia units sent to Suez, remove the two infantry brigades, 1 back to UK, 1 to Malta.

From merged units I make 3x5inf corps (add artillery brigades to each division) for European conflict
2 x 4 inf corps (add eng) and later a mtn division for East Africa conflict
1 x 5 inf corps for North Africa

NAVY:
Merge all navies. Then make

3 of:
3 x BB
2 x CA
7 x DD
I name them 'Humber Force', 'Channel Force', and 'Mediterranean Force'. All 3 to fight in North Sea/Channel area, and rotate ships when needing repair. Mediterranean Force to move to Med when needed with a reserve Fleet to rotate with.
These are effective fleets that generally smash the living daylights out of anything they come across.

3 of:
1 x CV
1 x CVL
2 x CL

I just name these fleets whatever the name of the CV is. I use these by basing them in ports and using them as a mobile air wing. They protect their own port from port strikes as well as covering my navy patrols from enemy naval strikes etc.
I have found this is an effective tactic (against AI at any rate) for using CV's.

I sometimes disband some of the spare 'CL's but you do have to be careful not to go under the limit and lose the grand fleet bonuses.

 

[Palmerdale]

It looks like you're doing this as a Custom Game start. (Based on the army manipulation).

I do similar things, but I tend to vary the startup quite a bit. I've tried a lot of alternate ideas, both with standard games and custom games -- no destroyers, no Air Force, only Light Planes, no tanks, only light tanks, etc. I'm not at all into historic names, so I like to rename everything (and reset all generals) on Jan 1, 1936 before I start the clock. (Saving the game then will save you a lot of work for replays). I tend to favor games as Italy or Japan, as there is always a lot to do, and plenty of latitude for strategy. About the only countries I don't really like playing are the faction leaders, and of those three, I tolerate the Soviets better.

In most any game (regular or custom), I'll reorganize my air force first. I'll get the navy restructured by Jan 15, so for a far-flung country like the UK, I'll send all units to a regional port in order to reorganize. For regular games, I'll generally not try to work on the armies too much, only as needed.

For custom games, I almost always delete all units and rebuild them. This is important when I'm doing something like an 'Only LARM armor' game, because it puts the practicals into the units you actually have (and plan to build). (The regular game does give more practicals than you can get in a custom game, but I'm okay with that). I seem to always not build enough Convoys/Escorts when I do a custom start.

 

[pdBravo]

It's just the names I customise mate. I manipulate the army by transporting them from India etc to the UK, disbanding all the HQs, and reforming the army in the UK, building support brigades, then redistributing the corps back out.
Based on 3 brigades per division, you end up with what I wrote earlier with one spare brigade, which I usually place in Malta.

I forgot the air force, I tend to put my 5 separate TACs into 2 groups, of 3 and 2. I base them in UK ready to naval bomb anything my navy encounters early in the war. I usually build another tac before Italy joins the war and then I send a 4 strong tac group to Alexandria.

Italy is one that interests me, thanks for sharing your approach. Getting the start wrong can destroy a game which is partially why I posted this thread to see how people start games to give me ideas for starting as new countries to mix it up a bit.

 

[Phili]

I have a standard opening for my UK games with small variations.
The AI sticks to an historical timeline giving us almost 4 Years to prepare so first I bring all my forces home.
Like pdBravo I merge my Tac bombers into wings of 3 and 2. I Merge six of my CAGS to form 3 wings of 2 x CAG, One for each CV's.
I send my Subs to one port and the surface ships to Southampton where I can re-arrange them by type into the fleets I want.

I question one thing about your fleet

3 of:
1 x CV
1 x CVL
2 x CL

CV's and CVL's have different speeds. Mixing them robs the CV's of their speed advantage. I like to add a Fourth CV and CVL to my build queue so that I can have fleets of
(4 x CV / 4-6 x CL) And (4 x CVL / 4-6 x CL) to take down the Kriegsmarine in 39. These can then be split into (2 x CV / 2-4 x CL) And (2 x CVL / 2-4 x CL) to take on the Italians and Japanese.
My ideal basic fleet design is 3 Capital / 6-9 Escort where the Capital ships are all the same type and the escorts all the same type.
This gives me fleets of:
For battle: 3xBB/6-9xDD or, 3xBC/6-9xCL
Subhunting: 2-4xCA / 4-6x DD and sometimes CL's for some extra support.

The Army starts with almost as many HQ's as Divisions so I disband them all and start again in the UK.
I will rearrange divisions with mixed Brigade types like Ghurkha/Inf or Inf/Gar to get Divisions that are all the same type like Ghurkha, Infantry or Garisson. The Four Afrikan Division with thier mix of Infantry/Militia Brigades will all be upgraded to 4xMountain before I send them back to Afrika. The rest of my Divisions are left as they are but will have brigades for them added to my build queue. The Garisson Divisions will be defending single province Islands and Fortresses with nowhere to retreat to so I like to build them up to 3xGar/AA.

Finaly I like to manualy save my game twice a year and before major events.

 

[pdBravo]

Thanks Phili, love your answer. I also disband all those crazy HQ's lol. Might steal some of your other ideas also

Just on your point about my CV/CVL fleets. I don't use them as fleets, I use them as a wandering airbase and they only stay in port, or at least mostly, so the ship speed doesn't matter.
To start with all four of these fleets (as I usually build one more by war's beginning) are based around the UK, three on the East coast, one on West.
When Germany declares on Norway one or two will go to a Norwegian port and cover my navy protecting Norwegian waters.
Later, one will go to Alexandria to cover that port and surrounding water/land as appropriate.

Against Japan later there is a different approach which I won't go into here.

 

[Kovax]

My games typically start with assigning spy and research priorities, sending diplomats to make trades and establish a positive trade balance, and assigning some of my highest skilled generals to the Army Group level to reduce supply consumption. I tend to consolidate easily-moved units (aircraft, ships) to the capital or as close as possible to it, to reduce the per-province penalties for units far from their supply hubs, and then move distant units toward whatever port or supply artery feeds their area. Again, the less provinces that are in the supply chain, the better, so three units together 6 provinces from your capital don't draw significantly more supply than if one was 6 provinces away and the other two were in the capital. The units don't all need to move to the capital, particularly if the capital is a port or near one, in which case moving any overseas units to the port they're supplied from reduces the supply cost well enough without transporting them.

I initially pump a LOT of Leadership into Espionage for about a month or so, in order to build up a supply of spies ASAP. The first 10 go toward domestic counter-espionage as soon as they're built, in order to remove as many foreign agents as possible before they become more securely entrenched. Once I've got 10 to spare, in addition to the 10 domestic agents, I send them as a group to whichever country happens to be my top espionage priority (depending entirely on which country I play). As with your domestic spies, taking out their defensive agents in their home countries before they become entrenched is critical, otherwise you're going to lose a constant string of agents just to keep a few in place for other purposes.

Trade is next on the priority list. First, I try to sell whatever I've got a surplus of to any potential ally or trade partner who needs it, before concerning myself with buying what I need. Selling resources to allies who are short on those materials helps make for stronger allies. Selling resources to potential allies increases Relations, which helps draw them toward your faction. Selling resources to potential trade partners for materials that you need increases Relations, reducing the cost of the resources that you will buy in subsequent deals. If they need 8 of something, I'll sell them 5 this time, and 3 more next time, THEN buy what I need with the +30 Relations boost to lower prices. For a country like Germany, selling 4-5 rounds of Energy before buying Rares can save a small fortune. On the other hand, if you're selling supplies to generate cash, you want to make those deals first, so the cost of those supplies is as high as possible.

Assigning officers to places where their traits and talents do the most good is usually the next step, rather than having my Armor run by Old Guard and Commando generals, and my colonial Milita and Garrison units manned by Battle Masters and Offensive specialists, etc.

Arranging the various HQs into some kind of simple framework is usually a fairly early move, but I don't disband HQs unless I know I'm never going to need them, because you lose something like 50% of the manpower permanently each time you disband a unit. Obsolete WWI submarines get disbanded. Other ships may or may not be useful, but I'm reminded that a country like Germany can still make effective use of those WWI battlewagons to block off one end of the Channel while it conducts an invasion of the UK without interference from the Royal Navy. Old outdated DDs can upgrade their electronics to detect submarines just as effectively as the latest and greatest. Decide what's still potentially useful to your strategy before you disband units.

Building more IC depends entirely on the country you play. A nation that expects to be fighting for its life in 1939 probably won't recoup the production cost of any IC built in 1936 until well after the start of hostilities, so building IC is counter-productive. If you're not going to be involved until 1940 or later, you can probably recoup the cost and be slightly ahead of where you would have been otherwise, assuming that you can actually feed that additional IC with resources. Note that Germany is a borderline case, where it wil ltypically pay back the production cost of any IC built in 1936 by the end of 1939, so you might be down a brigade or so going into Poland by building 10-20 IC at the start, but by 1940 you'll be ahead of where you'd have been otherwise. Depending on your production techs, ministers, and laws, the break-even point can vary considerably.

Regardless of whether you build IC or not, building any non-military units that DON'T use supplies is best done early, instead of building up a lot of units that will drain supplies for the next 3-4 years. Projects such as ports, airfields, infrastructure, convoys, and other items which don't use supplies won't be a drain, so if you're going to build them, do so early. It still pays to build a SMALL number of military units of various types from the start in order to ramp up Practical values (or at least prevent decay), which will speed up production once you shift to mostly military construction. Also note that staggering the completion dates of a group of high-cost items can save a fortune, since the completion of the first unit can knock weeks or months off of the completion date of subsequent units. A prime example of this was building 2 BCs as Germany, followed by 2 BBs. The completion dates of the BCs were staggered by 6 months, and the first BB wasn't started until after the last 1936 tech was researched for them and both BCs were already in the queue. The completion of the first BC resulted in the second BC completing a day after the first (6 months of 11 IC per day saved, and a couple of weeks of IC/days were actually wasted because I didn't leave enough of a gap), and the completion of the second BC moved the BB dates up by roughly another two months. I had all 4 capital ships ready to go in mid-1939. If I had skipped the BCs and built a pair of BBs simultaneously, they wouldn't have finished until 1940, and one of those BCs was more than paid for with the production cost savings. Timing is important.

 

[Phili]

Arranging the various HQs into some kind of simple framework is usually a fairly early move, but I don't disband HQs unless I know I'm never going to need them, because you lose something like 50% of the manpower permanently each time you disband a unit. Obsolete WWI submarines get disbanded.

I thought the 50% loss of manpower only applied when demobilizing. No one ever mentioned disbanded units before.

Also I find old subs usefull for drawing out the Kriegsmarine. The UK starts with 9 subs and 1 in production which I organise into 4 Sqaudrons of 2 and 3. As soon as AI Germany declares war I send a Sub Squadron to convoy raid right outside Wilhelmshaven and my BB/DD fleets to patrol the same area. The AI always responds to convoy raiders by sending a surface fleet which finds my BB's before it finds my subs. The German fleet always comes off worst and retreats to Wilhelmshaven which I can now hit with my Tac, Strategic Bombers and CAG's from my carrier fleets which I move into the area while the subs and BB's go home. The CAG's from my CVL's I use to protect both of my carrier fleets while CAG's from my CV's bomb any ships hidding in Wilhelmshaven. If my air attacks are relentless then I can destroy the Kriegsmarine by December 39.

 

[Wraith11B]

Which just goes to show how badly the AI handles the Air war. The RN should be scared shitless of trailing their coat along the coast of Northern Germany, especially that early in the war when not many of their surface combatants had significantly powerful anti-air batteries, nor did their carriers host modern aircraft for years.

 

[rjohansen]

If I play other countries than Germany, I use different mods, which I also do with Germany. However, I am trying out something for myself now, modded the default TFH. This playing Germany. Have yet to see how it works out in the end.

Have three different High Commands: OKH, OKW and one Theater-HQ for all the future occupation forces. Plus, I just in the current game also made OKM and OKL as seperate high commands. Playing on hard. I tried to make the game a bit harder, while still be able to build some more troops and units so:

All units costs 10% less
All units produces 10% faster
All units that uses fuel now uses 20% more
- Exceptions
Submarines: -75% of everything (including combat stats etc)
Destroyer: -40% of everything (including combat stats etc)
Germany got less materials (reduced metals) - will result in huge deficit. Have to be fixed through trading or conquest. If there was any rares/oil from start, removed it all.

Added 10 level forts/coastal forts in Gibraltar and Malta - don't remember what they are default anymore.

I also made some events that kick on different times for the allies. My intention is to make the gamer harder the longer it lasts.

USA 1942 (effects last one year)
→ 4 STR, 2 GAR
→ 1000 manpower
→ 15.000 officer pool
→ Naval Base Efficiency 1000% (this one is the same for all events) so it will last to 1946.
→ Ruling Party support 20%
→ supply throughput 40%
→ supply consumption 50%
→ global ic 40%
→ global resources 40%
→ officer recruitment 55%
→ manpower modifier 50%
→ leadership modifier 20%
→ territorial pride 20%
USA 1943 (effects last one year)
→ 6 STR
→ 1000 manpower
→ Same as previous, but 10% more of everything
USA 1944 (effects lasts two years)
→ 15 STR
→ 1000 manpower
→ Same as previous, but 10% more of everything

UK 1936 (just one event to give them more units etc)
→ 30 GAR, 17 CAV, 1 LARM, 6 MIL (Spread out in Africa, India etc. UK might move them around... I hope not. Will see)
UK 1940 (effects last one year)
→ 6 STR, 3 INT, 500 Manpower
→ Ruling Party Support 20%
→ Supply Throughput 15%
→ Supply Consumption -15%
→ Officer Recruitment 15%
→ Naval Base Efficiency 1000% (this one is the same for all events)
UK 1942 (effects last one year)
→ 300 Manpower
→ Supply Throughput 25%
→ Supply Consumption -25%
→ Officer Recruitment 25%
→ Global IC 25%
→ Global Resources 25%
UK 1943 (lasts one year)
→ 3 STR, 300 Manpower
→ Supply Throughput 35%
→ Supply Consumption -35%
→ Officer Recruitment 35%
→ Global IC 35%
→ Global Resources 35%
→ Global Manpower 25%
UK 1944 (lasts two years)
→ 300 Manpower
→ Supply Throughput 50%
→ Supply Consumption -50%
→ Officer Recruitment 50%
→ Global IC 50%
→ Global Resources 50%
→ Global Manpower 50%

Soviet 1942 (effects last one year)
→ 2000 supplies, 500 manpower
→ Same as UK +
→ Territorial Pride 30%
→ Leader Defence 15%
Soviet 1943 (effects last one year)
→ 700 manpower
→ Same as UK +
→ Territorial Pride 35%
→ Leader defence 20%
Soviet 1944 (effects lasts two year)
→ 700 manpower
→ Same as UK +
→ Territorial Pride 40%
→ Leader defence 25%

South Afrika, Canada 1943 (last one year)
→ Supply Throughput 25%
→ Supply Consumption -25%
→ Officer Recruitment 25%
→ Global IC 25%
→ Global Resources 25%
→ Global Manpower 25%
South Africa, Canada 1944 (lasts two years)
→ Supply Throughput 50%
→ Supply Consumption -50%
→ Officer Recruitment 50%
→ Global IC 50%
→ Global Resources 50%
→ Global Manpower 50%

Australia 1936 (single event to get more troops)
→ 24 GAR, 1 STR, 200 manpower
Australia 1943
→ Same as South Africa and Canada + 40% Territorial Pride
Australia 1944
→ Same as South Africa and Canada + 80% Territorial Pride

Default events, I also buffed the default events some:
The finest hour: added global manpower modifier 10%
End of the beginning: added global manpower modifier 10%
Patriotic war: Buffed territorial pride to 25%, leader defence 25%, national unity 25% + 3500 manpower
General winter: Reinforcement bonus to 40%
Love of freedom: leadership modifer 20%, manpower modifier 30%
The nation expects: global manpower 20%
Infamous day: manpower modifier 55%
Our time (Italy gets nerfed instead): war consumer demans 20%, leadership modifier -10%, land organisation -10%, reinforcement bonus -10%

I also spread some manpower through these normal events:
UK 500
USA 800

Might also be more changes. I have just started the game, so not sure how it will work out. But hopefully it will be a hard game.

 

[rjohansen]

As for the playing style, not that unique I think:

First couple of months: Build up trade and spies. Not much focus of research as of yet.
After 2-4 months, I start to do research and can cut loose on trade.
Production: I build some IC and put them in places that already have IC. I don't put them far away from the front. I like being attacked. But I don't build much. As USA I build more, but as Germany (my two preferred countries to play) I build less, perhaps 15-30. I do build forts, infrastructure, airbases and coastal forts.
Unit production: If playing Germany I build some future Garrison troops first. As USA, I don't build any land units for the first couple of years. But I build some navy.

Units: I use the best leaders in divisions early on in the war, then move them upwards in the chain of command as they got improved. But I also take into considerations current traits etc.

 

[ichitori]

I always play as Germany. In my past few games I also play on Very Hard difficulty.

The thing I have always done first is lower my leadership points in all categories and put it into technology. Giving me 16-20+ technology slots.

What I have done recently and will always do

Spoiler

Make a few 3 star HQs and rename them Panzer Corp HQ. I mainly place my tank divisions and a few motorised division in them. I also make 1 or 2, 4 star Panzer Army HQs and connect the Panzer Corp HQs to them. I put Logistic trait generals in charge of the HQs and some heavy supply sucking tank divisions. Imo, this trait is the best to add to the efficiency of the units, especially and maybe only usefull if you want to take on Soviet Union.

 

[Phili]

Its interesting how many strategies there are for where to spend leadership points.

The first time I manually controlled leadership I didn't know much to give each slidder so I decided I needed officers least and grabed the slidder for it and pulled it all the way to the right and then all the way to the left giving 1/3 of all leadership to each of the other slidders. That's how I start all my games now. Then around early to mid February when I've made all my trade deals and got around 40 spare spies and 40 Diplomacy points I'll reduce what I spend on Espionage and Diplomacy to about one point to maintain those numbers.

The UK starts with just under 30 leadership points so I can research 9 technologies from the begining. If I put one technology from 9 seperate technology groups and then each month after that send another from the most important tech groups to the top of my research list I can spread the completion dates out and avoid having all the techs for one group finish together.

Also I question the idea that the UK fleet was obsolete. Most navies designed and built thier warships for a 30year lifespan. The bulk of the UK fleet was built during or just after WWI which started in 1914. The end of WWII was 1945, 31years after 1914 making most RN ships still in thier early 20's and inside thier intended lifespan. Just how obsolete was the RN?

 

[Palmerdale]

Its interesting how many strategies there are for where to spend leadership points.

The first time I manually controlled leadership I didn't know much to give each slidder so I decided I needed officers least and grabed the slidder for it and pulled it all the way to the right and then all the way to the left giving 1/3 of all leadership to each of the other slidders. That's how I start all my games now. Then around early to mid February when I've made all my trade deals and got around 40 spare spies and 40 Diplomacy points I'll reduce what I spend on Espionage and Diplomacy to about one point to maintain those numbers.

The UK starts with just under 30 leadership points so I can research 9 technologies from the begining. If I put one technology from 9 seperate technology groups and then each month after that send another from the most important tech groups to the top of my research list I can spread the completion dates out and avoid having all the techs for one group finish together.

Also I question the idea that the UK fleet was obsolete. Most navies designed and built thier warships for a 30year lifespan. The bulk of the UK fleet was built during or just after WWI which started in 1914. The end of WWII was 1945, 31years after 1914 making most RN ships still in thier early 20's and inside thier intended lifespan. Just how obsolete was the RN?

I've found that the method that Kovax suggests works well for me. Jan 36, 100% in Espionage, leave it alone for a couple of months to build up 100 or so spies. By March 36, I'll redistribute my leadership. That works well for most countries that I've played. Also in Mar 36, I'll pick target countries for spying, and let them ride with all in counter espionage to remove defending spies. I don't ever recall having 1 in Espionage maintaining my spy numbers. If anything, I have to run between 7 and 9 in Espionage to maintain my numbers. It depends a lot on what countries you are spying on. And the base game may have some bias towards the UK spy production.

Spies (and their survival rates) seem to be highly dependent on any mods you happen to be running. HPP can eat spies faster than I can produce them. I can manage 6 target countries in the base game without much difficulty. That's just too many to maintain in HPP. A single Major plus one minor/neighbor is about all that seem to work with HPP. It makes building threat very challenging, as that generally requires long duration efforts. (HPP also seems to build replacement enemy spies faster than you can kill them. Reducing a country to 0-1 counter-spies takes forever).

 

[Phili]

I've never targeted more than 3 countries at one time.

Like you and Kovax, whatever country I play I put all my spies on counter espionage for the first month. Then I target the other factions leader to increase its threat.
As the UK that is Germany but as Germany I target Austria to support my party and increase threat in the USSR and France, not the UK because France spends nothing on countering my spies so they last longer.

Research is my priority until Germany declares war and I get decent recruitment laws, then I put 100% of my leadership on Officers to get 140% officer ratio.

 

[Kovax]

HPP and vanilla HOI3 are worlds apart in how to handle them. In the base game, I find about 5-10 Leadership points for a month or two is sufficient to put 10 spies in my own country and around 2-3 key targets. Depending on which country I play and my chosen targets, after about 2 months or so at the higher rate, I might only need 0.5 Leadership out of the 20+ I have, in order to maintain my espionage presence for the rest of the game, or it might take 3-5 points that I can't afford to spend out of my 5-7 total Leadership. HPP will just eat those spies and laugh.

If you're sending spies into France (poor counter-espionage and laws which penalize counter-spying, making it an ideal target for tech stealing by less-advanced minors), it's a cakewalk to remove their defensive agents and plant your own spies for whatever nefarious purposes you have in mind. If you're trying to subvert Germany or the Soviet Union, it's going to be painfully expensive for at least a year or two until your own spies are heavily entrenched with bonuses. The UK is about middle-of-the-road, and Italy, Japan, and the USA are a bit on the tough side, either due to laws (Italy, Japan) or high ministerial bonuses (USA).

Note that the effects of spies changed drastically from the base game and first expansion (Semper Fi) to the later expansions. I seem to recall that there were problems in multiplayer with teams ganging up against targets and combining espionage effects into a lethal sum, and that spamming Threat eventually to most countries being driven to the center of the diplomatic triangle with no possibility of being drawn into a faction. The effects of most spy actions were heavily toned down (like by 95-99%), so most of the original actions don't do all that much any more, or have been changed, and several new spy actions have been added. Despite that, the stated functions of many of those original effects are highly inaccurate or outright wrong: as an example, "sabotaging production" actually lowers the repair rate, and typically has zero effect in peacetime.

Putting a lot of points into Officers early in the game with low draft laws can be a waste, but if you don't train some along the way, they take close to forever to build up at a time when you're trying to bring all of your techs up to par right before the war starts. Playing a small minor, I usually put 0.5 - 1.0 points into it, then bump that up 6 months before I expect to be at war. With Germany, I have to pump 5-10 points into it, then boost that to 10-20 when I mobilize and simultaneously maximize my draft laws shortly before hostilities start.

The toughest choice is between having higher draft laws and better officer recruitment (less Leadership spent for the same amount of officers), versus lower draft laws and the ability to build a lot more units at reserve costs (less IC spent for the same amount of units), then mobilize them for only HALF of the difference in IC cost between reserve and active (a bonus only given during your FIRST mobilization). It all depends on which you need more: IC or Leadership.

 

[marxianTJ]

This is going to be a while. I typically find myself coming back to the game simply to relive memories of having played the game before. Nostalgia?

I mainly play the USSR, Italy, or France. But mostly USSR.

Step 1. Let the timer tick over a few hours.
Step 2. Establish trade deals in VERY small amounts with the following target nations: Republican Spain, Chile, Columbia, Netherlands, Greece, Iran, Afghanistan. By these trades I ensure that these nations may eventually turn Communist with minimal effort, or at the very least *not* join the Axis. Sell the rest of my energy and metal to whoever else will buy it. Then, start trading with some supply bearing nations, like the USA or Germany or the Netherlands and butter them up to 200 so I can get a cheap deal for supplies down the road.
Step 3. Pick through the entirety of the Espionage Tree and set *every* spy in the whole tree to steal technology, excepting those spies in France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. They go counter-espionage, and build threat in the case of Germany. If I intend to go to world conquest, I will send spies also to Columbia and Chile to ensure their communist parties win their respective elections later down the road. I also set the spies in Rep Spain to build support for the CP, and sometimes they'll do great work. It's interesting to see how often you can manage to steal tech from *somebody.*
Step 4. Move everything to Moscow
Step 5. Leave the navies where they're at.
6. Set leadership sliders to full espionage (until we've got 30 or so spies), with 3 leadership left over for leadership techs.
Step 7. Set production queues. A few air fields, several runs of AT and ART, a run of LARM, a few runs of MIL, a few runs of INF with ART or AT (AT at first), leave the naval stuff. One air craft (INT), and add a battleship at the bottom of the queue BARELY getting any IC....
Step 8. Put everything under a single HQ and assign a logistics wizard to that command, then delete all the other HQs. It saves supplies to delete them, and it's a pain to fiddle with the Soviet OOB before the purges, so I just finagle the trade system for more free supplies to make up for whatever I'm not saving by not having a proper OOB until 1939.

I don't build IC as the USSR and sell virtually all of my excess resources in order to buy supplies to keep my IC need for supplies at 0 until just before the invasion of Finland kicks off. I find that you can, thanks to practical increases, build far much more stuff this way. The trick is upgrading it fast enough because you have to pay for the upgrading of all the crap you built in 1936 lol. But even still it's only marginally less effective in most cases, and by then your practical values are as hot as they can get, so things upgrade faster anyhow.