I've played Darkest Hour for years and am trying to get into Hearts of Iron III again, let's have a HoI3 thread. I've picked up my Germany save again that I started last year. Currently at the start of Barbarossa.
>>2451411Nice, looks like the ukrainian front lays wide open
>>2451415yeah for some reason the Soviets seem to have left it weakAnother pocket
Deutschland siegt an allen Fronten
POCKETSOCKETS
>107 wasted IC>0.1 spies (only increased to 1)>118% officer ratio (decreasing)>unassigned divisions>attacking from Romanian territory, which turns it all into AI-occupied territoryabsolutely disgusting
>>2451616just goes to show how OP germany is in HOI3.
>>2451616>>107 wasted ICI come from DH so idk what to put the extra IC into. I don't want to deplete my manpower.>>0.1 spies (only increased to 1)Are spies that good?>>unassigned divisionsI was about to assign them.>>attacking from Romanian territory, which turns it all into AI-occupied territoryYeah ok that was a rookie mistake. Gonna try pushing from my territory in Ukraine.
>>2451874>Are spies that good?with savescumming you can cup any nation and make its governmant convert to your ideology, doesnt work on faction leaders tho, they instantly switch backbut also appart from that you want to get enough spies for counter intelligence to prevent your enemies from funking with you
>>2451874>are spies that good Yes. In DH I couped Russia and turned them fascist before hostilities broke out, so you should be familiar with how OP espionage can be.
>>2451879Doesn't that spoil Barbarossa?
>>2451883Yeah. It’s why in IV there’s that coalition head nonsense.
>>2451874>I come from DH so idk what to put the extra IC into. I don't want to deplete my manpower.Just put them into planes if you're unsure. Can't ever have enough of them
>>2452251Are planes worth it that much in HoI3?In DH, I always found planes weren't that good
>>2452302If I remember correctly they do decent strength damage which helps drain enemy IC and manpower. If you set the ground attack missions correctly you can also target the spots you want to break through.Nav bombers are also great vs ships.
Kiev in 3 weeks
>>2452302You say that, but one time I was playing as the French Empire in DH Kaiserreich and I landed in southern France basically undefended since the Frog Commune was getting shredded by Germans in the north. Germans were about to overrun all of France I wanted to "stop" their advance and the max the territory I gained once the Commune surrended. I took my fastet motorized division and beelined it from the Med to the Channel. On the way to the Channel, it was singled out by the entire Bong air force. Of the 5k men in that division that landed in the south, only 27 reached the Channel.
I would love a game like hoi3 that isn't set in ww2, kind of like if ww2 happened but in other worlds etc.So ww2 warfare but not the rigid historical setting
>>2452977Your best bet is Shadow Empire
>>2451874>I come from DH so idk what to put the extra IC into. I don't want to deplete my manpower.planes
Hoi3 is great. Even after you have played it enough to make it into a solved puzzle. Then you can do really fucked up shit to make a challenge again. I have played this game many times over the years and yet I can still think up some fresh scenario to try out.
BICE is a serious grind and event spam, but man it really scratches a certain itch.
>>2451411I hope hoi5 goes back to this visual style.
>>2453814NATO counters should be mandatory
>>2453310>Then you can do really fucked up shit to make a challenge againlike what exactly?
I was playing it again this evening and the game crashed on me in July 1941fuck this
new front opened
>>2455189We continue to advance on the Ostfront
>>2455201Romanians keep fucking up my linesCan't you take military control like in DH?Also should I manage every division manually like I do?
>>2451411Ugliest map in any Paradox game. It's the main reason HOI3 isn't in the GOAT debate.
>>2455401No you cant control Allied units in any meaningful sense. You can set objectives for your Allies but they may take a long time to act upon them if at all. The only way to avoid allies fucking up your lines is not to be allied to them in the first place. As Germany you dont need any allies. Don't puppet them either. Just conquer and annex. A couple of two brigade Calvary divisions are sufficient to take care of rebels in any area the size of France. Sometimes one is enough.Taking manual control is far more efficient. Also more satisfying imo. Most times manual control is unneeded to achieve victory over an opposing country but letting your AI do it will take much longer. In the case of invading UK or USA or basically anywhere overseas manual control is definitely needed.
>>2453814lmao keep dreaming>>2455465the opposite is true
>>2451411No way, HOI3 is still alive
How do I get this to work on windows 11? It freezes up the moment I get to the main menu. By the time i start a game it just crashes to desktop. >inb4 windows 11
>>2452488Putler would be proud
>>2454342Like lots of things.Obviously there are speed runs where you conquer the world as fast as possible annexing everything. You are allowed no allies and no puppeting. Except for any puppets you start with obviously. Then you can also create scenarios with preconditions. For example be Germany and build no land units. Only air and naval units. So you have to do a world conquest with your 1936 start army. So manage those 3 panzer divisions very carefully.Another example is choosing a non aligned country and remaining unaligned. Like China, or Australia or USA. Then declare war on everyone as soon as you can.Then there are house rules you can add. Common examples are no paratroops, limitation on how many carriers you can build. No four brigade divisions. Calvary only armies. No Sealion if playing Germany. The UK being restricted to leaving their 1936 units in the theater they started ( half their fucking army is in India and Africa ). Not taking advantage of better laws. As for the in-game later start date scenarios you add spice by handing over full control to the Ai for a set period of time. You watch as the Ai utterly fucks things up and then step in like a year or two later and try to salvage the situation. Try Germany with the 1944 start date. Let the Ai run Germany for an entire year before you take manual control. Fun.The whole idea is just to make the game much more difficult to win. Or conversely without imposing handicaps just see how quickly you can win. You can do some fun gamey shit like achieve a total world conquest with only the start German army by a ridiculously early date, like late 1940 or something. Or try taking on both Japan and the Allies at the same time as Australia ( it never ends well ). Another fun to do is tagging between countries once victory seems assured. One game I played as Germany until I had annexed everyone ( including the USA ) except the UK. Then I tagged to UK and tried to beat Germany. It was fun.
>>2455621It works fine for me on win11, but I replaced the normal exe file (hoi3_tfh.exe) with podcat's exe before running.
>>2455878Thanks dude!
>>2455401Army Group North is storming ahead
>>2455918Didn't actually take Smolensk yet but ok
>>2455924Mod?
>>2455928it's the base game
>>2455930You have the DLC, right?They were mandatory back then, they weren't add ons.
>>2455932I only have stupidlyNext game I play I'll get the other 2
>>2455932>>2455937meant to say "I only have 1" (Semper Fi)It helps with the OOB but I still find it hard to keep things neat with the different Army Groups lol
>>2455924Army Group North is making the best progress so far.
>>2455941And in the south, thanks to some clever maneuvering, we have blocked the Romanians from taking parts of Ukraine. Now we can reorganise Army Group South which is a total mess.
the soviets have fucking nothing just roll over them
>>2455969Soon enough he will reach Leningrad and take it.>Gosh that was rather easyThen he will cautiously approach Moscow and find to his surprise its just as easy to take.>Hmm, I suppose they are massing in the SouthBut after Rostov falls and he drags his units on towards Stalingrad he thinks>I suppose the Russian far Eastern force got delayed, that's good although I suppose the winter and logistics will slow me downHowever he finds taking Stalingrad and the last Soviet victory points to be a cake walk, just slow. The weather doesn't matter, and so long as he hasn't pushed 40 panzer divisions into the front lines his supply is just fine.He conquers Russia. In 1941.>How odd! I expected there would be more resistance!Now one of two things happen. He is either convinced he is a military genius comparable to Alexander the Great, or else he loads up the June 1941 start date and plays as Russia on very hard difficulty. He also includes a house rule: Russia moves nothing for the first full month.
>>2455969I am trying to tidy up my OOB>>2456271>Soon enough he will reach Leningrad and take it.Already taken it :)
Situation on the eastern front at the start of September 1941.I've been strengthening Army Group South now I've blocked Romania from advancing further east.Army Group North has taken Leningrad and is pushing into Karelia and Ingria (Finland is neutral, annoyingly).Army Group Centre is very crowded and this seems to be where Soviet strength is strongest.
>>2456478The front is completely and utterly open just right click their vps and win. Either your encirclements crippled them or something else did.
>>2456686I am pushing constantly. I have noticed more divisions around Moscow as I approach.I'm trying to learn the game as I go, so not rushing.
>>2456774Jesus Christ they have got nothing left. Just rush Moscow. The only thing you will be learning is just how the AI is utterly hopeless. The AI never keeps a strategic reserve.You will never find an enemy Tank army lurking behind the front lines just waiting for the right moment to launch a coordinated strike on your flanks.
does HoI3 show air battle losses?
Romanians help us capture Crimea
Did you completely encircle and destroy the entire Soviet army before this? Why are there no Soviet divisions?Whenever I played HoI3 the USSR had literal hundreds of divisions before I encircled them and thinned the ranks.
>>2457200I encircled lots at the start
Moscow falls
Anyway, looks like I have to take Stalingrad and maybe another city for the Soviets to surrender?
Abadnon thread.Looks like another half baked hoi3 thread started by some lowit anon who gets half way through a campaign only to discover he spent hours microing his units around when the outcome was never in doubt. Probably off playing Advance Wars now.
>>2459013OP's response?
>>2459013>>2459130I'm still playing :)Pushing the whole frontAlso starting to move troops west to take Gibraltar, Switzerland, and Sweden in 1942Should I invade Finland? They're neutral
>>2459141Please dont. It gets so tiresome. t. Finn
>>2457200I am playing on the very easy setting.
>>2459168VERY EASY mode? Why not at least try to give yourself at least a little bit of challenge?
>>2459154benis :DD
>>2459217:DD:D:DDD
>>2459168why.jpg
>>2453372I liked the division builder system, but it would always crash in 1940 and corrupt my save file.
>>2459546>Be retard>Post retarded comments and screenshots>Respond like retard to other's commentsThis is the way of the Retard. The Chinese have a name for it, called 像个彻头彻尾的傻逼. Which means "Being a fucking retard"In China such retards are beaten with sticks until they slowly learn to shut the fuck up. In the West however they are tolerated.
>>2459802https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzpndHtdl9A
bump
ok fuck it I'm rushing the VPs in the Caucasus
>>2460823>half of the USSR is getting occupied and genocided>better leave our two best tank divisions on the iranian border to some shit eating iranian infantry with muskets don't try anythingbased paradox ai
>>2460832Iran is actually in the Axis, I just didn't call them into the war lol
It's Swiss cheese time
>>2462973>swiss mountaineers losing to infantry in a fortified mountain province while their bombers bomb youebin
>>2462982I presume troops not at war don't get a dug-in bonus?And their divisions suck in terms of size
>>2455969t. Hitler
>>2459141If you have a good grasp on HOI3 and want something harder, you should try Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2.
>>2462982it's 1941 equipment and doctrines vs 1918switzerland could, if lead by a player, keep up to date but the ai doesn't>swiss bomberslmao
>>2463024Nothing harder about WitE. GG games just hide their simplicity under a shitload of details and tedious make work mechanics which do nothing but clutter the game. They also have their fair share of exploits. Furthermore there's no economic or political features, so every WitE game plays out the same way the only difference being in the details. Oh my you took Stalingrad before Moscow this time, how exciting! The AI is no better than hoi3, in fact I would say its worse.Hoi3 offers far more versatility and challenge for $5 while WitE gets boring after a couple of play through and costs over $100.What he needs to do is a) ramp up the difficulty setting in hoi3 to "very hard"b) choose a later starting date so he is not taking advantage of a prewar build upc) stop being a retardd) stop being a faggotAll that could be achieved by him simply abandoning his current game, which was always a map painting farce, and start the Barbarossa scenario playing as Russia on very hard difficulty. To make it extra spicy he will prohibit himself from making any moves for an entire month after he first hits the unpause button. But he will not because that requires nerves of depleted Uranium and radioactive balls.
>>2463021lel
>>2463449Do you have a take on Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa?
>>2463024I have been interested in that game for a long time but never played it
is Black Ice any good?
Sieg im Osten
>>2464376when it decides to not crashdepending on the patch the ai cheats a lot though as in it will just spawn an entire armored corps on your face
>>2464453WTF? Why do Sweden Finland, Vichy France, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Persia, and Saudi Arabia exist? Goddamn you are one weak ass faggot bitch lol. You dont make allies, you dont make puppets, you conquer and annex them all. ALL OF THEM you homo who reeks of ass juice. No exceptions. Jesus wept, just how many dicks have you taken today? The line of black pimps at your bedroom door must stretch around the block. Your ass must be so wide by now you could park a yacht up there.But even that faggotry wouldn't be so bad if you hadn't accepted bitter peace with Russia. Man, that is some Tourette syndrome downy shit. Do you have involuntary bowel movements too? Listen weed, you ANNEX all of Russia. Jesus fuck. ALL OF IT! Only the most limp wrist rent boy accepts bitter peace. Mother Mary must have fucked your ass sideways with a strap-on broom to turn you into such a cum slobbering loser waste of space.I am not sure its even possible for you to recover from such an overwhelming display of public assfuckery. I mean you could try sewing your flopping ass cheeks shut with industrial grade wire stitching, and then doing something manly like playing as Poland, but I doubt a wobbly knee liberal jizz licking subhuman like you is capable of lasting even a week.
>>2454342>>2455750Yeah I’m thinking Italy but invest all my research and industry into four or five one aircraft carrier, six destroyer fleets and wipe the Allies from the Mediterranean.
>>2465113holy sweatlord, batman
What's the closest thing this game has to TFR?
>>2465113I love you anon
>>2463449>>2459013>>2456846How much would you goyim pay for machine learning local AI that could control computer HOI3 nations and play them as competently as a human?I’ll go first. Honestly I’d pay $5-10k for some hardware upgrades to make this possible. I don’t think I’d leave the house for a while, either. Modern machine learning creating “multiplayer-like experiences” on old games like HOI3 would be a civilizational advance greater than space flight.
>>2464453Why does HoI3 have a particularly ugly map? Look at those fucking coastlines. Rome TW: Alexander tier
