Its no longer a sneek peek
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?552662-HoI-III-For-the-Motherland-3.05-patch
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?552662-HoI-III-For-the-Motherland-3.05-patch
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How long does it take you to redo the Soviet OOB? I use that exact method (send all land units of one type to one province) and it takes me about 2 hours to redo the Soviet army structure.
I will concur. You can't really "fight your way up." Well, it is very, very difficult. I started as Ireland, and was able to, at best, field one corps with 20-30,000 troops, anchored by a division armed with M3's built under contract from the U.S. It took until 1943 before Ireland had 20 production.
We did some freakishly interesting campaigning. When the Netherlands decided to liberate itself in 1941-1942, the Irish were fighting alongside them until Italy entered the war and put a kibosh on thoughts of a Dutch seizure of Paris *and* Berlin. (They almost did it!)
Then we headed off to North Africa and helped conquer Libya from the Italians, side-by-side with the Iraqis.
Lastly, we headed to Sardinia and took that, and, strangely unopposed -- Sicily! But then suddenly 60,000+ Axis troops showed up, and the entire Irish army, isolated at Messina, melted in a week.
I ended that game there. It was my "training wheels" game. A couple of observations:
* If you want to build factories, you will not be building units.
* If you want to develop technology, you really need to focus on education, education, education to get the leadership up to semi-useful 3.0+.
* By 1943, I still had not even gotten to mechanized infantry, so I think all my development in the cavalry tree was a waste. I probably should have developed more air and naval technologies.
By 1943, Germany had taken all of the U.S.S.R. up through the Urals. It also took out an Allied Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, Netherlands (twice!), Belgium, Luxembourg (twice!), and most of China in the Pacific. They also had taken Malta in the Mediterranean.
The Allies had conquered Italian East Africa, Libya, Portugal (who had declared themselves Axis), and my small Italian conquests, however temporary those were going to be.
The game is incredibly slow-paced as a small country. You wait for a long time, even on "fast" speed, to get even a single tech development or a unit produced. Armor was 1941, based on the U.S. agreement. I didn't get any aircraft until 1942. My first home-built armored cars were some time in 1943. Then again I think I spent way too much time simply getting tech improvements and more factories. But whew! I was glad to have 20 by 1943. I don't think I was going to build any more until game end.
We did some freakishly interesting campaigning. When the Netherlands decided to liberate itself in 1941-1942, the Irish were fighting alongside them until Italy entered the war and put a kibosh on thoughts of a Dutch seizure of Paris *and* Berlin. (They almost did it!)
Then we headed off to North Africa and helped conquer Libya from the Italians, side-by-side with the Iraqis.
Lastly, we headed to Sardinia and took that, and, strangely unopposed -- Sicily! But then suddenly 60,000+ Axis troops showed up, and the entire Irish army, isolated at Messina, melted in a week.
I ended that game there. It was my "training wheels" game. A couple of observations:
* If you want to build factories, you will not be building units.
* If you want to develop technology, you really need to focus on education, education, education to get the leadership up to semi-useful 3.0+.
* By 1943, I still had not even gotten to mechanized infantry, so I think all my development in the cavalry tree was a waste. I probably should have developed more air and naval technologies.
By 1943, Germany had taken all of the U.S.S.R. up through the Urals. It also took out an Allied Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, Netherlands (twice!), Belgium, Luxembourg (twice!), and most of China in the Pacific. They also had taken Malta in the Mediterranean.
The Allies had conquered Italian East Africa, Libya, Portugal (who had declared themselves Axis), and my small Italian conquests, however temporary those were going to be.
The game is incredibly slow-paced as a small country. You wait for a long time, even on "fast" speed, to get even a single tech development or a unit produced. Armor was 1941, based on the U.S. agreement. I didn't get any aircraft until 1942. My first home-built armored cars were some time in 1943. Then again I think I spent way too much time simply getting tech improvements and more factories. But whew! I was glad to have 20 by 1943. I don't think I was going to build any more until game end.
I find Italy fairly good for beginners. otherwise my suggestion is to use the AI help. let the AI handle a lot of your army/set objectives etc so you dotn get overwhelmed while you learn other aspects of the game. you dont have to understand everything your first game. also if you search youtube for soemthing like "lets play hearts of iron 3" there are decent videos where you can pick up stuff and see how others play.
With SF/ICE it is very interesting to play as Romania. Excluding Germany, Romania provided more soldiers for the Eastern Front than all the rest of the Axis combined and events and decisions have been created to help recreate this situation. You get some special Romanian units and you get some units which were created from equipment bought pre-war or createdfrom equipment acquired during the war. There are lots of "for information" events also. Romania starts with relatively high nutrality and not great unity, so it is a job to move these in the right direction. In my last game, I managed to annex Yugoslavia and Bulgaria pre Barbarossa and then secured the German Southern Front by advancing to Stalingrad in a two year war with Russia. I then invaded Turkey, Syria, Iraq and continued through to secure the Suez Canal, as the Italians were struggling. After this I secured East Africa and then South Africa and Gibraltar. My Romania is now more powerful than Italy but will never be as powerful as Germany.
It is a fun country to play but it is nerfed in Vanilla, so SF/ICE is the best way to play it.
You find it overwhelming to play as a major power?? This is HOI3. not EU3, not Supreme Ruler or anyother game... Theres no economy to manage... Playing as a minor actually gives you more to manage. Because As a major you can leave things up to AI and just learn one part at a time. My advice for learning this game would be to play as germany a couple times. leave Military Operations up to AI and just learn the basics. Then you can start to take on more and more for yourself.
I actually found the Soviet Union the easiest. If you read the SU Wiki page beforehand that is. You only have to deal with a limited tech tree. Diplomacy is of limited use. Set the trade to automate so you don't have to bother with it. Then focus on building a good defence and get ready for war. Once you've played a game of that you'll understand the main part of the game, which is warfare. Then, after knowing the basics of that, the other countries will be easier.
At least that's what I found! We all learn in different ways and that was a great start for me.