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Win Beta Spot for Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour!

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I have been playing HOI3 with the same friend since it first came out (and played 2 alone before that), and it is unfortunate that we only started using a steam copy recently since we do not know how many hundreds of hours we have played.

But my most memorable moment was the first time we had the balls to invade Russia as the Axis (I was Germany, he was Italy). We attacked along the entire front, from Finland to the Caucasus (he had also taken Turkey and we had Persia in the Axis too). While our tactical skill was not comparable to many of the hardcore players on this forum, we started to make good progress. After a few months, I had taken Leningrad and was only a few provinces away from Moscow and was constantly pushing the Russians back.

Since my portion of the front was going well, I decided to check my friend's portion of the line to see how he was doing. My blood almost ran cold.

The Panzers I had built for him were sitting in a pocket surrounded by Russian tanks. On my inquiries as to why he had allowed this to happen, he told me he was attempting to blitz all the way to Stalingrad- before he had defeated the Russian troops in the area. I don't think I can repeat the profanities I threw at him.

Although it resulted in our defeat, that is my most memorable moment in HOI, and I always enjoy reminding him of this.
 
My finest hour(s) in Hearts of Iron 3

In every session there are two moments that satisfy me most during the game.
The first highlight is always when I’m finished with regrouping and reorganizing my Army-, Navy- and Airforce-Units. Sending the right leaders to each unit and headquarter. Let’s call this “Pimp my Organisation”. With every year I look up for new leaders with good skills to integrate them into the headquarters – so that I’m sure that the best men fit into the most important positions.

The second moment that finally makes Hearts of Iron 3 – For the Motherland the best Strategic-Warfare-Experience is the “magic of combing arms”. That’s when you start organizing a big landing-operation. Starting with focused air-attacks and getting air-superiority, followed by partisan-groups getting ready to support the upcoming marine-landing-troops. Paratroopers land at the partisans locations and finally “in the middle of the night” masses of ground-troops start their landing-operation. Now it’s all up to them… Are they going to be successful by building up a stabile bridgehead or will they be thrown back into the sea?

Combining these two aspects – Hoi3 is the most gripping game experience. Built with much attention on detail and fascinating interaction of many different aspects of global warfare.

I’m really hungry to play the finest hour – adding a third “finest hour” to my game-experiences ;)
 
My most epic moment was an epic defeat in HoI1.
I had almost broken the soviet union in 1943, but then lost 30 advanced light armor divisions in Stalingrad in an epic encirclement.

The battle raged for over two months and I desperately tried to free the tanks, but ultimately failed. A terrible blow that weakend my eastern front so much that the soviet AI was able to counterattack.
The war went on for 3 more years, but an US landing in France in 1945 was my doom. Still, I fought fiercly till the bitter end, since it always seemed that there was a last chance to turn the tide again:
Rocket and jet planes that gave me air superiority again, V-rockets that allowed me to hurt England significantly, new tanks and mechs for my army, an almost finished nuke program.

I did some brilliant encirclements in the last few months, but it was way too late. When the USA nuked Bremen and Munich (and those were the one and only nuke attacks by a paradox AI ever!), the game was over.

A thing that also made this game great was the fact that it felt like history, just with a one-year delay:
The overextension at Stalingrad and into the Caucasus, the landing of the US troops in France, the attack in Italy, the soviet penetration of the eastern front - it all felt so familiar, and it was really fantastic to see that I was responsible that these events had happened - unwillingly. I guess if I had tried to engineer these events, by playing or scripting, it would never have worked out this way. :D

So what did I learn?
(1) Tanks are NOT good in urban enviroment.
(2) There is always a chance to win - or lose - a game, no matter what the situation looks like.
(3) HoI is epic. <3

Link to the short AAR:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...hort-AAR-for-the-HoI3-Finest-Hour-Competition
 
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Secret Master, what's your best HoI moment?
 
I played a game of Hearts of Iron 2 which started January 1st, 1936 and ended December 30th, 1947...

... and nothing happened in this game.

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania caved in to German demands for territory, then joined the military alliance with the British and French. Only Slovakia actually joined the Axis powers and Japan never really took any territory in China! The Rape of Nanking took place in late 1944, but they were quickly beaten out of there by Nationalist Chinese forces (which were admittedly generously supplied by the United States). So German war machine never gets into gear, Japanese imperial ambitions seem to be ambitions only, not action. In fact the Japanese ended up joining a military alliance with Manchukuo as the alliance's leader! The Soviets never invaded Finland or the Baltic States. Only Italy got away with any territorial ambitions by conquering Ethiopia and Albania, which was hardly enough for the United States to become concerned with. So, as the US, it could never convince Congress to get involved in just about anything and we never geared up for war.

On the other hand, the next game I played was as Germany where World War II started in May 1936. That is why I love the Hearts of Iron series, they are never the same way twice (and I almost got the US to ally with Germany against the Soviets - but maybe that will be the next game). This is the stuff that counter-factual histories are made of.
 
One of my most memorable games was when I played as France, starting in 1936, with the FTM expansion. I did everything I could to get a right-wing government elected in 1940, and when Action Francaise finally was elected, I used my spies to secure their position. For years I had been building my army, and had quite a bit of infantry divisions when the war started; many were stationed near belgium, but a sizeable amount on the Italian border. My plan was to quickly make a dash for Rome and to try to puppet Italy. When germany was busy in Poland, I was very excited for a glorious victory, especially since I thought I outnumbered the italians in northern Italy. But the moment I declared war, my attack failed miserably and the Italians attacked for themselves, pouring into southern france. Naturally, I was flabbergasted. All my troops were held up in Nice or had been pushed north. Nothing stood between the Italian motorised infantry and Bordeaux. I decided to sail troops currently idling on the Belgian border to Nice, and some Maginot troops to move in from the north. In a decicive stroke, these reinforcements managed to cut the italians in France off from their supply in Italy. To my delight I found the Italian AI had kept too few troops in Italy to prevent me from taking Milan, Genoa, Bologna, and even Venice. At the same time, the British AI had invaded Sicily. Italy soon surrendered. My infantry then moved into the austrian alps, hoping for another advance. This failed. My infantry dug in and the next few years of the game became like the first world war all over again. That brief moment where I managed to take France from the brink of defeat to a decicice victory, even though it was short-lived, was one of the most memorable moments I had in game.
 
Well I was playing FTM as Germany, and both fronts were collapsing fast. Soviets advance with their communist bears on unicycles, and the allies crush my forces with a massive force. My options are few, but listening to iron maiden aces high came up. I started a new offensive against the allies in France which caused my army to become extinct, but our spirit still lived. (Even with Berlin in Soviet hands, and national unity at like -100)
 
One of my more memorable moment in Hearts of Iron 2:

I was playing the Netherlands and I surrounded myself with fortresses. When war finally broke out, the Germans were not able to break through my lines, but they did completely surround me. Cut of from my colonies and supplies, I could do nothing but wait. As the war dragged on and the Germans started to suffer from Soviet and American attacks I started to think about trying to break through the german encirclement. Maybe I could even capture the Ruhr-area for myself... Sadly, the german troops around my border were too strong to take the risk.
Things changed however when France sent me an expeditionary force. 1 motorized infantry brigade. Having nothing to lose I managed to break an opening in the german lines and I sent the french unit through. Although the germans quickly closed the gap, they had no other units in germany itself. So I sent that one french unit out in the general direction of Berlin. It was pretty useless, as every province it captured, was quickly recaptured by a german unit in pursuit. But still it was a very funny moment to see a lone french motorized infantry occupying Berlin. Even more so when I looked closer at the that unit and realized it was commanded by none other than Charles de Gaulle himself!!! :D
Sadly the germans quickly surrounded and defeated him. Still, the shortlived occupation of Berlin forced the germans to retreat troops to their core-provinces, weakening their defences on the east- and west-fronts, leading to their collapse.
 
Dear Regina,

My first game as Japan with FtM (HoI III Compilation). After marching across Asia, Africa and begun my island-hopping campaign in the Med’, the USA declared Infamy upon joining the Allies.

The Emperor was so bitterly disappointed by the treachery of the USA as our relations with them were 200 and they were Japan's best trading partner, as we were theirs. Such a lack of honour demanded retribution. Following the code of the Samurai, I vowed to cut down every apple tree on the continental USA & replace them with cherry trees or die in the attempt.

Six months later I’d destroyed/captured all the US marines that had sullied Japanese soverign territory, most of their fleet was rusting at the bottom of the Pacific (at least their crews died with honour) & I was preparing to invade the US mainland from my new base in Hawaii.

Hopelessly outnumbered in men & machines and massively outclassed by their armour & mechanised infantry, my strategy was to wear them down. After another year of hard fighting in & around the highlands & rivers of the US West coast, supported by my battered fleet & exhausted pilots, the United States & Canadian armies finally crumpled through lack of manpower. The road to Washington DC and Justice was open. Honour had been served.

THIS was my finest hour.



Sadly, there’s a bug in FtM & my game crashes when I take the US capital.

I just wish I had the time to try it out with TFH
 
It was like discovering ice cream for the first time.

Hi, well I'm a forum lurker for many years now and never really posted on here so I don't have an AAR to share but my absolute best experience was when I stumbled across Hearts of Iron 3 about 2 weeks after it came out. I have never even heard of the series before and I've always yearned for a serious, fully immersive, I'm going to start yelling in German at my wife type of game, where I can do what I will. Axis and Allies was eye opening to the world of strategy beyond Risk and Chess and in turn HOI3 was eye opening to me to the level of detail that I craved for so long. It was like discovering ice cream for the first time. The very best moment of HOI3 for me was discovering a game of this scale and detail was even out there.

Heers (yes thats a pun) to you Paradox <raises a can of beer> and all of the other grand-strategy and history fans. May you continue to make great games and push the envelope of my marriage to see how long my wife will let me sit at my computer!

Hamster
 
when I#m going to look back my best impressions are:
announcing a great game some years ago with awesome features. This features has been implementet from time to time with expensive extensions :( and many, many bugs with waiting for patches.

When i totalize the cost for this game I feel sick :(

But i'm pleased to see Paradox has worked and worked to make this game to that, what i have long-awaited.
 
When i totalize the cost for this game I feel sick
Click to expand...

When I add the costs of the base game and the add-ons, divide it by the number of hours I played it (something like 1500 or more? i'd rather not know lol), and compare it with how much I spend on fuel for example (or cinema, or beer, or taxes lol), HoI3 really is laughably cheap.

I dare you to name another way of entertaining yourself that's cheaper per hour and lasts for as many hours as this game.
 
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delra said:
When I add the costs of the base game and the add-ons, divide it by the number of hours I played it (something like 1500 or more? i'd rather not know lol), and compare it with how much I spend on fuel for example (or cinema, or beer, or taxes lol), HoI3 really is laughably cheap.

I dare you to name another way of entertaining yourself that's cheaper per hour and lasts for as many hours as this game.
Click to expand...

Civilization 4, ROME- Total War, Imperium Galactica II, Cossacks, Warhammer - Dawn of War (I / not II), STartrek Online... to be continued :)
 
You must be kidding, neither of those ancient games can match up to HOI3 in 2012... Good luck playing RTW without the diplo cheat, for example.
 
In my humble oppinion, Civ IV can.

One of my finest hour(s) with HoI was with Arsenal of Democracy, for some non existent reasons, I played the Soviet Union for the first time with AoD and knew absolutely nothing, even the Great Purge came to me as a surprise. I build IK and units, most Inf with PAK and Art. and in 1941 right on the Clock the German came. I was simply overroled and thought the game lost. Just for fun I focused my whole IK in spamming Militia, in 1941 they drove me all the way to the two rivers and Smolensk, 1942 was slaughter without big changes and in 1943 the Germans were Idle and hope returned.
I took my only panzers, I think they were about 18 Divisions and a HQ, loaded them on ships and landed in Romania (all the Balkan was German allies.) In one big movement I was able to annex all the Balkan nations and drove deep into German territory, the Panzers were lost, but they were distracted enough and the breach in the east frontier was achieved and from then I drove them back all the way to Paris and beyond.

Another great moment was my first game with Japan, again I wasn't really know what I'm doing. I annexed China, went all the way through different countries like Afghanistan and ended up annexing Persia ... then the war against the Soviet Union startet and I had a 10.000 km border. I never joined the Axis, but I got most of the SU. The USA became the allies after a succesfull coup (that was divine) and after the SU JApan attacked the axis and bit after bit the whole Eurasion-African Contintent became yellow. I started annexing South Africa with US-Troops but lost the motivation.

(This is not posted in the AAR section, because I wouldn't have time to be an productive Beta Tester)

And I was part of a much more glorious story, but that one will come to you by Methos. We had that event in a MP game and he replayed in in SP for Screenshots, so it really happened twice about the same way, enjoy it!
 
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