Soviets too strong

[Madae]

They just are. They can hold up against 4 fronts like it isn't even a problem. Germany never does the damage it did in history, and the USSR is never at risk of falling in my games. I've seen pictures of people defeating them, but I'm sure that has more to do with a smart player knowing how to play Germany. I've never played the USSR, but every game is the same; they win, they convert half of Europe to communism. They need some sort of random, 50/50 events that support or hinder them a lot.

 

[Dan1109]

In general in 1.3.3, Axis is at a disadvantage because of new resource shortage penalties on production. Rebalance definitely needed. For now try increasing German and Japanese strength sliders, or try mods like BICE and vanilla+ which continually make balance adjustments.

 

[Madae]

What is a strength slider? I don't see that. Even with Germany having production penalties, the Soviets stopped me, as Turkey, dead in my tracks trying to move up north. I didn't have any shortages, and they absolutely destroyed my manpower with hardly any gains on my part.

 

[Oddb@ll]

You can adjust different countries strength on a slider before you start up a new game. It grants the chosen nation a series of buffs to e.g. research, entrenchment and production. Currently if I play any other nation than Germany I buff them.

 

[Dan1109]

Strength sliders are in the bottom/mid right of the screen when selecting your country via the map, at the beginning of the game. No way to change it, unless you mod the save file, so best to start again. Each bump on the slider will show additional bonus that individual country gets.

Unfortunately (but suggested already to devs), no way to make a country weaker, only can make its enemies stronger.

Yes, Germany will have to do quite well(atleast get it to historical levels), for you as Turkey to jump into the war and make a meaningful impact against the USSR. There might have been a reason to their madness, staying neutral during ww2

 

[BurdenedWarrior]

The caucus (spelling) mountains are the best place to push. Mountains give huge disadvantages. You should try playing as germany and try to beat them. Also make sure your divisions are optimal. I recommend reading the hoi 4 wiki. http://www.hoi4wiki.com/Hearts_of_Iron_4_Wiki

 

[Madae]

Tried the Vanilla+ mod. Didn't see much difference. Germany actually lost against the USSR within weeks of declaring war on them. At least in the base game they survive for like half a year or longer. Found the slider, so I'm gonna give that a try. Gave Germany +25%.

 

[him_15]

There would be news for the next patch tomorrow which would probably (and hopefully) fix the Germany AI issue, better keep an eye for that.

 

[Meglok]

Tried the Vanilla+ mod. Didn't see much difference. Germany actually lost against the USSR within weeks of declaring war on them. At least in the base game they survive for like half a year or longer. Found the slider, so I'm gonna give that a try. Gave Germany +25%.

Don't get your hopes up for a strong ai Germany in 1.3.3. Due to the resource and production changes the balance is horribly off towards Russia now. Even slotting the slider all the way for Germany doesn't always help.

You could try the Expert AI mod. It does help some with the game balance by changing the production scripts. Also use No Man's Land mod so that the Axis doesn't send all it's troops to Africa.

The issues of production penalties, division shuffling, Africa, suicidal troop transports, and province stacking have really nerfed the Axis into non-competitiveness in 1.3.3. Hopefully it will all be fixed in 1.4.

 

[kauzer]

/Blame Russian hackers

 

[Madae]

Well powering up germany works pretty well, but still irritated at how peace and land is awarded. Seems like every time I win a war, and even if I do most of the work, the AI gets to go first and takes all the land around me. There needs to be a heavy distance modifier to make the AI choose land closer to their capital first.

 

[Celdur]

What is a strength slider? I don't see that. Even with Germany having production penalties, the Soviets stopped me, as Turkey, dead in my tracks trying to move up north. I didn't have any shortages, and they absolutely destroyed my manpower with hardly any gains on my part.

You shouldn't be mad that you couldn't win with Turkey vs USSR, that is the way it should be.

As it stands right now, you just need to learn to play a little better and you can win a war of Turkey vs USSR without anyone else helping you.

 

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

Vanilla Germany is quite poor in the hands of the AI. So if you regularly see the axis lose to the Soviets, its something thats being worked on.

 

[Praetori]

Human Germany is normally able to steamroll the Soviets without resorting to any cheap tricks or gaming the AI even with harder sliders.
AI Germany however has issues in a lot of games (a bit more than half of the iterations I tested on 1.3.3) and often goes gridlock in resources, shifts to closed economy (thereby shafting the other axis completely) but still manages to end up on equipment deficits. It doesn't ramp down on divisions when this happens which leads to a German army largely bereft of critical equipment (and then they get steamrolled by the Soviets).

On the other side of the spectrum the USSR can also sometimes end up not being able to recuperate their equipment losses after less than a year from Barbarossa and then die in a fire. The AI is seemingly not aware of it's limitations in the field and attacks when it should be static and re-build. Larger areas of the front should ge relatively quiet when there's a acute lack of equipment on both sides but instead the AI keeps mashing depleted forces which eventually drains the equipment pool of the entire nation.

Sometimes though it plays out pretty balanced but there's often a tendency to run short of equipment with 1.3.3 that probably came with the changes to resources and efficiency.
More stop-build-go behavior for the AI could probably be good or some other balancing/tweaking of priorities and triggers regarding army behavior.

 

[Dalwin]

Currently AI Germany fails miserably, but even an average human player with a few games worth of experience should easily be able to conquer the Soviets as Germany. More experienced players can easily do this as Rumania or Italy.

It is definitely true that the new economic rules hurt the Axis (though they do the Soviets no favors). I think the most severe example is Japan's desperate situation regarding aluminum.

 

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

Human Germany is normally able to steamroll the Soviets without resorting to any cheap tricks or gaming the AI even with harder sliders.
AI Germany however has issues in a lot of games (a bit more than half of the iterations I tested on 1.3.3) and often goes gridlock in resources, shifts to closed economy (thereby shafting the other axis completely) but still manages to end up on equipment deficits. It doesn't ramp down on divisions when this happens which leads to a German army largely bereft of critical equipment (and then they get steamrolled by the Soviets).

On the other side of the spectrum the USSR can also sometimes end up not being able to recuperate their equipment losses after less than a year from Barbarossa and then die in a fire. The AI is seemingly not aware of it's limitations in the field and attacks when it should be static and re-build. Larger areas of the front should ge relatively quiet when there's a acute lack of equipment on both sides but instead the AI keeps mashing depleted forces which eventually drains the equipment pool of the entire nation.

Sometimes though it plays out pretty balanced but there's often a tendency to run short of equipment with 1.3.3 that probably came with the changes to resources and efficiency.
More stop-build-go behavior for the AI could probably be good or some other balancing/tweaking of priorities and triggers regarding army behavior.

Yes, if you switch over to AI Germany, say after France, youll notice that theyre -50K infantry equipment and 10k artillery. Then once you go to the recruitment screen youll see why. They have all this deficit and yet they have 100+ divisions in the que training. Then they quick deploy them all, half trained, and send them to the Sahara to die.

 

[Praetori]

Yes, if you switch over to AI Germany, say after France, youll notice that theyre -50K infantry equipment and 10k artillery. Then once you go to the recruitment screen youll see why. They have all this deficit and yet they have 100+ divisions in the que training. Then they quick deploy them all, half trained, and send them to the Sahara to die.

One interesting aspect of Germany sending troops to Africa seems to be Italy failing in the same manner. Even if AI UK leaves Suez open for grabs the AI Italy can't keep itself afloat with Germany shutting down trade with closed economy since it has very limited access to steel without Germany (and that's required for everything Italy needs).
All in all the AI is far too happy with sending forces to far away fronts to help its allies when the effects are often detrimental to the war effort.

 

[Dalwin]

I have even seen Germany in this latest build pull divisions out of a half finished Norwegian campaign to ship them to Africa via the Channel. Those that survive the gauntlet have a pretty good chance of being shipped back to Norway a couple of weeks later. Not only are these transport missions probably the most idiotic thing the AI currently does, they also turn a winning campaign in Norway into a losing one.

 

[Praetori]

I have even seen Germany in this latest build pull divisions out of a half finished Norwegian campaign to ship them to Africa via the Channel. Those that survive the gauntlet have a pretty good chance of being shipped back to Norway a couple of weeks later. Not only are these transport missions probably the most idiotic thing the AI currently does, they also turn a winning campaign in Norway into a losing one.

The Italian AI also likes to send troops to Germany through the channel but my absolute favorite is Axis troops going to and from Northern Europe and the Med through axis captured Suez (Gibraltar still in British hands), through the Red Sea, around the Cape of S.Africa (to be prayed upon by the RN, SDF and various other happy sailors from the Commonwealth), passing by roving bands of French and British fleets operating out of West Africa and Gibraltar and finally through the Channel where any survivors are forced to learn how to swim or die trying by courtesy of the RAF, Coastal Command and Home Fleet.

 

[Redz28]

In summary, the game is pretty much broken still at this point.