Having played the vanilla HOI (DD Arma etc) for quite some time, I was a little skeptical about what majors having so many tech teams would do to the game. Then, the thought entered my mind (playing USSR because my degree in Soviet History comes in handy, and because it's an easy nation to get the hang of things with) that I could actually have a real air force, consisting of *many* different types of air craft, rather than Cas/TAC only! Finally I can have all sorts of things to play with! I gleefully watched as my wings of strat bombers knocked out every air field near mine, and as my hordes of MiGs brutalized the luftwaffe that even managed to take off, and then the good ol' TACs and CAS did their thing in safety. It was a beautiful sight. I can only imagine what this means for naval countries who can now afford all different sorts of fleets instead of relying on 2-4 types of craft only.
Movement speeds also seem modified which is handy dandy, since I can now *really* tell when mud is involved in the equation.
The longer length of engagements, although sometimes questionable (could 5 divisions really hold out against 50+ for so long?) does give the old map a bit better scope - as typically the large regions fought over in the war weren't captured in a matter of hours or even days.
The money = universal trade good, was also a more realistic and great improvement.
I did grow to hate those various type of conversion plants though lol, felt like I was spending IC in order to have to spend more IC on consumer goods to trade for resources. A vicious cycle in the quest for oil/rubber. I'm sure it's great for other nations which aren't oil/rares rich though.
I should also note that the "purge" event for the USSR, while much more painful than in vanilla is at least an attempt in the right direction (particularly since the penalties go away with later techs and proper slider moves) which should all come around the time the Soviets started to turn things around irl. I for one purged, then carried out operation "Ice Breaker" and attacked the Nazis while most of their army was screwing around in Yugoslavia/Greece
I didn't want to even begin to try to handle those German armies with their massive ORG in a fair fight. Nabbed Berlin in May of 41'.
Great addition to my HOI2 collection, I'm a late comer to AoD, but very glad I went ahead and shelled out the 14$.
Movement speeds also seem modified which is handy dandy, since I can now *really* tell when mud is involved in the equation.
The longer length of engagements, although sometimes questionable (could 5 divisions really hold out against 50+ for so long?) does give the old map a bit better scope - as typically the large regions fought over in the war weren't captured in a matter of hours or even days.
The money = universal trade good, was also a more realistic and great improvement.
I did grow to hate those various type of conversion plants though lol, felt like I was spending IC in order to have to spend more IC on consumer goods to trade for resources. A vicious cycle in the quest for oil/rubber. I'm sure it's great for other nations which aren't oil/rares rich though.
I should also note that the "purge" event for the USSR, while much more painful than in vanilla is at least an attempt in the right direction (particularly since the penalties go away with later techs and proper slider moves) which should all come around the time the Soviets started to turn things around irl. I for one purged, then carried out operation "Ice Breaker" and attacked the Nazis while most of their army was screwing around in Yugoslavia/Greece
I didn't want to even begin to try to handle those German armies with their massive ORG in a fair fight. Nabbed Berlin in May of 41'. Great addition to my HOI2 collection, I'm a late comer to AoD, but very glad I went ahead and shelled out the 14$.