Interface problem with unit IDs, headquarters and theaters

[Curtis Cook]

Okay, now I feel like I'm just spamming you guys, so I promise this is the last new thread until Thursday or later.

I'm on January 1st, 1936, playing as Germany. I tried to reorganize my forces to improve HQ bonuses, occupy the Rhineland, get Logistics Wizards in wherever possible, and move the theater boundary farther west, so that theater Heere controls all of the Czech border and part of central Germany.

1) Occupy the Rhineland — I THINK I'm set up to do this, but I'm not sure because the interface is so difficult to work with that I'm not at all sure what's going on. See after the jump, below.

2) Improve HQ bonuses by setting up Army and Army Group HQs — I got nowhere. I can see where to split a corps HQ to create an army HQ, but what I need is a way to promote some corps HQs to army and army group HQs. (There's no point in creating new army HQs, then destroying the corps HQs they were created from.) I was under the impression such a way existed, but I can't find it.

3) Change the commanders — I've decided who I want where, but I haven't put them in place yet. Hopefully it will go smoothly.

4) Move the theater boundary — Nothing. I found a button on each theater HQ that says it's to attach provinces to that HQ, but clicking the button does nothing. (I'm in Theater mapmode, by the way.) I tried clicking the province transfer button, then clicking on the province. Nothing. Double-clicking on the province. Nothing. Right-clicking on the province. Nothing. How do you move the theater boundary?
******
I'm really pissed off at the guys who wrote the strategy guides and the manuals for the various add-ons. They say the Research and Organizational Structure screens are so intuitive that they require no explanation, and the guy who did the in-game tutorial seems to agree with them. Well, they're the opposite of intuitive. Leaving the Research screen (which I THINK I've figured out) aside, I cannot navigate around the units on the map.

For some reason, none of the units is labelled on the map, so you can't just look at the map and get a quick idea of where your units are, as you could in HOI2. Then they decided to make some unit counters larger than others, THEN PUT THE LARGEST ONES ON THE TOP OF EACH STACK SO YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S UNDER THEM!!! In HOI2 you could 'click' your way through a stack to get to the unit you wanted, after already having a good idea where it was from mousing over. In this game mousing over doesn't work, and neither does clicking through the stack, so I getting at units that aren't on top requires three or four tedious steps (four if you don't know that the unit you want is even in the stack).

There HAS to be a better way. I cannot believe that you guys put up with that nonsense for eight years without demanding changes, so there HAS to be a better way. Can anyone tell me what it is?

To give the devil his due, the feature that shows the chain of command on the map works well (except that if units in the same chain as a selected HQ are in the same hex as that HQ they don't show up), as does transfering brigades between divisions and division between corps.

So, to sum up, three questions this time: First, how do you redesignate an HQ as a higher level HQ? Second, how do you move a theater boundary? Third, how can you find and select units on the map without tearing your har out?

 

[GIJoe597]

You cannot "promote" HQs. You create new ones from units on the map. If you click on a corps and press Create a new Army and attach this corps to it, (4 XXXX icon), it creates an Army Corp HQs. You can do the same thing on the Army Corps HQ to create an Army Group HQ. The Army Group HQ will then create a Theater HQ when the Icon is clicked on. Each icon has a number of X's denoting the level fo HQ it will create when pressed. For whatever level of HQ you wish to create, choose a unit below it and detach it from its existing HQ, then create the new on.

XXX = Corps
XXXX = Army
XXXXX = Army Group
XXXXXX = Theater

There are indeed times when you need to create lower level HQs, in order to get to the higher level ones. You then delete the un needed lower levels. Keep in mind the HQ will be created at the location of the unit creating it.



To change sizes of a Theater, change to the HQ map mode then select the HQ commander with control over the theater. On the HQ unit there will be an icon, in the middle of the window, named EDIT THEATER. This icon is in the same area that in lower level units would create a higher level HQs. One you click on the EDIT THEATER button, then "paint the provinces you want to be part of the theater. Do this by holding the left mouse button and click dragging on the map. The provinces will change to the color of the selected Theater HQ.

I am not sure I understand what you issue is with finding units on the map. I will ask this; are you using counters? If you hover the mouse pointer over a stack of units you can get an idea what is there with the "pop up" or lasso the stack to see exactly.

 

[Count Blue]

I'm really pissed off at the guys who wrote the strategy guides and the manuals for the various add-ons.

But you should not be, these people do that (or rather did) in their free time they were not obliged to help you or anybody else.
So take the tips you get and be thankful.
I was when I first got here and it helps enormously to increase your standing here.

 

[Kovax]

A couple of other spoiler-ish tips relating to Occupy the Rhineland:

There is absolutely no hurry to do the Rhineland decision in January; you have until December 31, 1936 to place your divisions and activate the decision, and the event really doesn't do much for you in the short term. In fact, by triggering it early, you're creating a small amount of Threat on France that will allow them to spend less of their IC on Consumer Goods and more on a military buildup. Basically, the event gives you some free manpower (which may do you some good about 5 years down the road) and allows you to take other decisions which will appear later. By delaying the event until December, you're denying France that little production benefit for 11 months, which means a couple of divisions that you won't need to fight in 1939 or 1940. All you absolutely need is two divisions moved into the border area adjacent to France, one in the northern half and one in the southern. I normally have enough fresh divisions to occupy all of the provinces, placed one step away and ready to advance into the Rhineland before the end of the year, but really don't need to occupy every one of them to enable the decision.

If you place spies in Austria almost immediately after the start of the game, wipe out most of their defensive agents in January and early February, and then begin 100% concentration of your espionage efforts there on supporting your own party in their country, you can usually activate the Anschluss decision several months ahead of time (assuming that you did the Rhineland event). That in turn will mean Munich as early as January 1, 1938 (provided that you reduce their National Unity enough by that point), followed by First Vienna in late '38 instead of Spring of '39. That provides roughly half a year of extra production with CZE's IC, Resources, and Leadership before the war starts. I generally prioritize at least 5 (often closer to 10) points of Leadership in January and February 1936, to build up 10 defensive spies ASAP, eliminate as many offensive spies in my territory as quickly as possible before they can become "entrenched", build another group of 10 spies to promote my party in Austria, and THEN focus on building up 10 spies each for CZE (lower National Unity, required for Munich event), and FRA (also lower National Unity, to increase their need for consumer goods and delay several improved Production laws). After that, I can cut my Leadership investment into Espionage to about 1 point.