Played HOI3 for years yet never noticed.......

[50shadesofgreen]

1) I've often reorganised my naval and air assets to save fuel. I have just realised that the pie charts have supply usage for air and naval units the marked the wrong way around. So efficient naval OOB shows savings in aircraft supply! (FTM)

2) I've missed the hidden values that minors and puppets add in spy efforts. Now I'm paying attention I notice how much party org raises due to the combined efforts of multiple small allies tinkering with my politics. Another example is France seems crippled in its own Counterespionage through useless laws, yet seems cleansed of foreign spies by a troupe of friendly Iraqi agents helping with their effective Counterespionage modifiers!

Any more?

 

[Wraith11B]

The British (and to a lesser extent the French) are almost virtually impregnable due to the virtue of their allies running counter espionage operations in all other nations. I always found it ridiculous that the micro minors like Oman, Bhutan, Nepal or Yemen had the resources to devote to running spies at home, much less abroad.

I'd wonder if there was a way to increase the cost as IC goes down (to make the cost for those powers below the regional or high minor level skyrocket) such that they can not support said missions, or spies. There's no justification for Oman, Iraq or anything to have agents in Britain.

 

[j_k_k]

Honestly, the most impactful thing I do that I'm not sure most people do is use the battle planner to mark swamps (or marshes, whatever) on my map even when in political view, also with indicators of impassable areas. Sure, I can see them by changing the view, but it's really nice to see them out ahead. Once I did that, I realized that there were very limited paths through the Pripyat Marshes and areas north of Karelia. It also kept me from pointlessly barging into alligator country with mobile units. I just drew a dotted blue line around all the swamps I was likely to come near, and (for lack of a better graphic) dropped a landing craft graphic smack in the middle of the impassable provinces. It certainly told me where I could help trap my enemies with a little selective log bombing.

 

[Corugi]

1) I've often reorganised my naval and air assets to save fuel. I have just realised that the pie charts have supply usage for air and naval units the marked the wrong way around. So efficient naval OOB shows savings in aircraft supply! (FTM)

2) I've missed the hidden values that minors and puppets add in spy efforts. Now I'm paying attention I notice how much party org raises due to the combined efforts of multiple small allies tinkering with my politics. Another example is France seems crippled in its own Counterespionage through useless laws, yet seems cleansed of foreign spies by a troupe of friendly Iraqi agents helping with their effective Counterespionage modifiers!

Any more?

Gosh, never noticed those either. Tbh I rarely use spies other than just blindly slapping them down on domestic counterespionage and raise threat, then forgetting about it entirely. Never paid much heed to the charts either. You have a finer eye for detail than me.

Probably the only thing that gave me a "never noticed" moment was the realization that I could launch intricate naval invasions with a big stack simply by selecting all units on a transport, sending them off to invade one province, deselecting (x) the unit(s) I want to actually go to that province, and then picking the next province to invade. And so on, invading multiple provinces simultaneously with an entire army. Far easier than doing it one unit at a time, as I was previously doing. What a noob.

Not a "never noticed" moment but this post reminded me of having to ask on the forums to find out how to retrieve a land unit on an island with no port. I didn't know you had to hold "ctrl" to move it back onto a transport. Somewhere in a some long forgotten save game there is still a division of Marines living forever on some lonely Pacific atoll. Boy, they must hate me.

 

[Kovax]

The British (and to a lesser extent the French) are almost virtually impregnable due to the virtue of their allies running counter espionage operations in all other nations.

Playing virtually any Axis country, I regularly place spies in both France and the UK with near-impunity. By pumping a heap of Leadership (like 5 points or more) into producing spies during the first month or two, you can drop 10 spies in a target country and wipe out their defensive spies BEFORE they become entrenched. Once you've cleared their defensive spies, you only need to dedicate a fraction of your efforts to keep them or their allies from placing fresh spies.

Once I've cleared out the starting spies, I usually put three "pips" into counter-spying and two into whatever I'm trying to accomplish (either tech theft, supporting my party, or eroding NU). France is one exception, where I only put 2 pips in counter-spying and 3 in the main task, because their counter-espionage is so weak. Austria is simpler yet: playing GER, once you've taken out the initial defenders, just go 100% on supporting your party; for any other Axis country, just let GER do its thing without interference. Usually, once I've got my spies established and the defenders wiped out (which can take 2-6 months), I can cut espionage funding to about half a point of Leadership or less to conduct espionage in France, the UK, and the SU, plus Austria and Czechoslovakia while they last. That's more than sufficient to pick off the occasional allied spy that shows up. Trying to successfully begin espionage operations in a country a year into the game will be a lot tougher, since there seems to be some kind of bonus the longer a spy remains in place.

Playing as a democratic country, you don't have the aggressive counter-espionage laws like the totalitarian states, even if you have ministers with suitable traits. For many countries, it can be done in spite of the unfavorable odds, but it's a lot tougher and more Leadership intensive to constantly replace spies.

 

[50shadesofgreen]

Probably the only thing that gave me a "never noticed" moment was the realization that I could launch intricate naval invasions with a big stack simply by selecting all units on a transport, sending them off to invade one province, deselecting (x) the unit(s) I want to actually go to that province, and then picking the next province to invade. And so on, invading multiple provinces simultaneously with an entire army. Far easier than doing it one unit at a time, as I was previously doing. What a noob.

I'd been aware of that method of moving units since reading it in one of Misterbean's AAR/tutorials. What was dumb of me was not to ever notice or use the similar button in carrier ops to select all CAGs. First use by me in current game. Doh!

 

[50shadesofgreen]

I'm not complaining about those minors use of spies as they are few and actually protect the inept France from being ravaged by an aggressive Axis spy campaign.

It is though annoying when I defeat a small nation and puppet it to my faction yet, see weeks later that its spies that previously were lowering my national unity (or similar anti gov mission) are still engaged on their negative mission against me. Not only are they giving their new allies a kicking, but they are doing so while enjoying the privilege and protection of being immune to Counterespionage that "friendly" spies enjoy! Piss-takers.

 

[Kovax]

I'm not complaining about those minors use of spies as they are few and actually protect the inept France from being ravaged by an aggressive Axis spy campaign.

It is though annoying when I defeat a small nation and puppet it to my faction yet, see weeks later that its spies that previously were lowering my national unity (or similar anti gov mission) are still engaged on their negative mission against me. Not only are they giving their new allies a kicking, but they are doing so while enjoying the privilege and protection of being immune to Counterespionage that "friendly" spies enjoy! Piss-takers.

One more reason to annex, rather than puppet. If it's early in the campaign, I prefer to annex, since I can generally put my small fraction of their IC and Leadership to better use than they can do with the full amount. Later in the game, making a puppet and having them keep what's left of their army and navy becomes more practical, unless I've already wiped out most of it.

Note: Pushing back France's army, rather than encircling and destroying it, and then puppeting most of the country after taking the best pieces, is a cheap "I win" move for GER. I did that once, and that was enough.

 

[Giob]

Before my last games s Germany I hadn't realized just how powerful spies are if you use them smartly. Now I simply avoid the Bitter Peace events by straight up 100% surrender progressing the USSR.