What is the average time you spend setting up your country?

[GSS_]

I'm talking about when you open HOI4 and start a new campaign and, without time running out, you select the national focus, the investigations, organize the productions, the fleets, prepare the armies, the generals, the fleets... if it is a small nation no more than five minutes but... the USSR for example? France and United Kingdom with troops all around the world? All Paradox games requires some time to set up the game, but in Hearts of Iron (with major countries) sometimes can be a bit tedious. It reminds me of board games that it takes 30 minutes to assemble the board and the tiles. How do you do it?

 

[ClavintheGreat]

7-8 minutes for majors, 2-3 for minors

I do construction first, then research, then national focus, lastly production

Then I do divisions into armies, train more if needed, then navy. Air can wait until the game has started running.

I dont do the agencies until 38 because I want the civvies

 

[pheonicia]

Not too long, most of it is just messing with the air and naval ui.

 

[blue_yonder]

I have a savegame with the highly original name of 'start.' It has a completely deleted army, because the army annoys me, all planes sent to reserves, all ships headed to one port. It contains all the usual stuff, but I leave production and construction untouched, as these are forever changing slightly. So, time is about twenty seconds.

 

[Timmysoboy]

7-8 minutes for majors, 2-3 for minors

I do construction first, then research, then national focus, lastly production

Then I do divisions into armies, train more if needed, then navy. Air can wait until the game has started running.

I dont do the agencies until 38 because I want the civvies

do the first step, then set it the 3 speed and waffle my way through the rest. 2-3 minutes of game paused.

 

[MR2]

I have a savegame with the highly original name of 'start.' It has a completely deleted army, because the army annoys me, all planes sent to reserves, all ships all headed to one port. It contains all the usual stuff, but I leave production and construction untouched, as these are forever changing slightly. So, time is about twenty seconds.

It still takes me 30 min. to setup a new game. Having a "Setup V, U, or M" file saved makes it only seconds to five minutes.

 

[GSS_]

Not too long, most of it is just messing with the air and naval ui.

I don't mess with air UI until war starts.

all ships headed to one port.

While I love the naval rework, sometimes I get lost in the amount of shipyard management (which fleet should each ship go to).

7-8 minutes for majors, 2-3 for minors

Well, you are fast. I lost many time in armies, above all.

 

[him_15]

10 mins for majors, 2~3 mins for minors.

 

[Mr_Dimento]

5 seconds for majors
2 seconds for minors

 

[Duke_Dave]

1 Minute (,Hungary) to 5 minutes, although I also organize my air wings during the game unless with Italy since it's not that urgent.

 

[Ethereld]

I mainly play as the UK so it can take me around 10-15 minutes to arrange the Royal Navy. Around 20 minutes when playing as the USA.

For the rest of countries (Japan aside) it should not be much more than 5 minutes at most, quite commonly under that.

 

[Krautkopf]

I have a savegame with the highly original name of 'start.'

And I thought it would be weird to have savegames called "USA startfile", "Soviet startfile", "German startfile" and so on

Now I know I am not the only one

 

[Voigt]

I think roughly a minute? Don't know for sure. Normaly "delete" airforce and merging all ships into a single taskforce.
Then selecting foci, research, production.
Army managment can be done while the game is rolling, especially in MP.

 

[KRonn]

I also create a start type save game for nations. That way in a new game I have less work to get going quickly. Though I seem to restart from the beginning sometimes anyway.

 

[blue_yonder]

.. Though I seem to restart from the beginning sometimes anyway.

yup, I needed at least seven false starts before I got to the start: failure to set repair dockyards to max.. failure to set garrisons to local autonomy.. failure to scuttle my pointless aircraft carrier.. etc. But I got there in the end, and France is now safe in my hands : )

 

[GSP Jr]

I have a mod with some of the "corrections" to the starting USA set up I always do already done.
If not playing sp/USA, I will do the same as @blue_yonder, except I call mine set_up.

 

[Reman]

For majors, assuming I already know their focus tree:

• Click focus.
• Do standard techs, typically construction + industry, and maybe land doctrine.
• Queue up some constructions in highest infra states, typically MIL factories or maybe CIVs if the war will start late.
• Set up production, usually to rifles + support equipment since most nations don't start with the tech for better stuff.
• Dump all units into 1 army and start exercising. If the country has overseas possessions I'll maybe leave a couple divisions in the important ones, otherwise everything gets shipped home.
• Delete all airwings, I'll recreate them in proper wings closer to the start of the war.
• Gather all ships, create one doomstack with all surface vessels and one with all submarines.

The process usually takes less than a minute for majors, and even less for minors.

 

[Harin]

For majors, assuming I already know their focus tree:

• Click focus.
• Do standard techs, typically construction + industry, and maybe land doctrine.
• Queue up some constructions in highest infra states, typically MIL factories or maybe CIVs if the war will start late.
• Set up production, usually to rifles + support equipment since most nations don't start with the tech for better stuff.
• Dump all units into 1 army and start exercising. If the country has overseas possessions I'll maybe leave a couple divisions in the important ones, otherwise everything gets shipped home.
• Delete all airwings, I'll recreate them in proper wings closer to the start of the war.
• Gather all ships, create one doomstack with all surface vessels and one with all submarines.

The process usually takes less than a minute for majors, and even less for minors.

More often then not, your method is exactly how I start my games. At least I start like a pro; if only I could keep it up after I hit the play button, !

 

[Secret Master]

I didn't think I'd see that many players delete the entire air force. I do the opposite. I just leave the air force the way it is and exercise it (if I have fuel) for air XP. Later, I will reorganize the wings into something more coherent. If I'm going to play in the SCW, I'll make sure I have 2 wings set up just for that.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

For majors, assuming I already know their focus tree:

• Click focus.
• Do standard techs, typically construction + industry, and maybe land doctrine.
• Queue up some constructions in highest infra states, typically MIL factories or maybe CIVs if the war will start late.
• Set up production, usually to rifles + support equipment since most nations don't start with the tech for better stuff.
• Dump all units into 1 army and start exercising. If the country has overseas possessions I'll maybe leave a couple divisions in the important ones, otherwise everything gets shipped home.
• Delete all airwings, I'll recreate them in proper wings closer to the start of the war.
• Gather all ships, create one doomstack with all surface vessels and one with all submarines.

The process usually takes less than a minute for majors, and even less for minors.

Same for me. The only exception that makes me take longer is if I'm playing a nation with a focus tree I've not used before (typically DLC or mods), which if you don't want to get burned requires some careful reading of the paths. Even then you might get burned from bugs, which is a developer mistake rather than a player mistake.