Hearts of Iron IV thread: The Fatherland Vs Mother Russia.

[Storm Bringer]

Since their is a steady number of Paradox games threads on this forum, I would assume that I am not the only person here who is aware of and interested in Hearts of Iron IV. For those who are Not aware but are interested, here is a link to the steam page for the game (http://store.steampowered.com/app/394360/).

short version: HOI 4 is a grand strategy game set in the WW2 era (1936-1948). you can control any sovereign nation of that time period, and, quite simply, make The Big Decisions. You don't worry about the movment of companies regiments, but with Divisions, corps or armies of millions. You don't tell, for example, the Memphis Belle to go bomb berlin, you order The 8th Air Force to go level Germany. you don't take control of the train station in Stalingrad, you plan and excute Operation Uranus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation Uranus).



A big part of the fun, like in many Paradox games, is to go wildly "off script" compared to history. in the HOI 3, I was able to, for example, lead the Romanians to take the Ukraine and push on to Stalingrad, and then annex that land for myself. As Australia, I have, on different playthroughs , been the lead nation in the pacific campaign and speadheaded the landings on the Japanese islands, stormed Sicily after having driven the Italians out of Africa, and liberated a conquered UK with co-ordinated landings Glasgow and Belfast.

If the idea of Aussie troops storming the shores of the Clyde and raising the Southren Cross flag over Glasgow City Chambers appeals, this is the game for you!




Now, the game is not released until Monday (6th of june, D-day), but is available for pre-order. So, who else is intrested? anyone else got this game yet? I cant be the only one on this forum.

[Alex Knight]

I loved to play HoI 2, but 3 turned me off with its more abstract "war plan" unit movement style. If 4 does the same thing, i'll likely pass. :(

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

HoI 3 didn't have war plans movement? Didn't it in fact have a more detailed map? I guess you might be referring to the ability to set certain levels of rhe army to ai control and give them provinces to take or defend, but it defaulted to full player control.

The new version is a balance I think. You draw out complicated battle plans, with timed manoeuvres, branching lines of attack, staged lines of fronts, etc, and then when everything goes to the dogs you give individual units orders to individual provinces to reinforce faltering lines, complete encirclements, or anything. Or you can give all orders by hand but I believe you don't get the slight bonus from following a battle plan.

[Corvus]

I don't get the obsession with playing Axis. Every single youtuber I follow who has a pre-release version is playing as an axis power. Is it because they are somehow 'harder' to play because they lost? Try playing France then, or Poland. These games tend to give the Axis powers fare more benefits in game as it is anyway in the name of balance.

I am very much interested in getting the game but it will have to wait a while until such time as I can afford it. May have to wait until it goes on sale at some stage.

[Storm Bringer]

I don't get the obsession with playing Axis. Every single youtuber I follow who has a pre-release version is playing as an axis power. Is it because they are somehow 'harder' to play because they lost? Try playing France then, or Poland. These games tend to give the Axis powers fare more benefits in game as it is anyway in the name of balance.

I am very much interested in getting the game but it will have to wait a while until such time as I can afford it. May have to wait until it goes on sale at some stage.

I think its because they feel it is more "interesting" to go counter-historical and try to "change History", and thus have a more attention grabbing story that will keep the viewing punters coming back. I agree that playing France would be a "harder" choice, but I get the feeling that youtubers shy away form that because they feel they will either win the battle of France (and defeating the Germans in 1939-1940, which would be "boring"), or loose and have to carry on as a minor power with whatever scraps they can salvage.....which would also be "boring".


on top of that, their is a certain cachet to the WW2 Axis, partly fed by the tendency of the Germans to favour Quality over Quantity (for example, the me 262 or the Tiger tank), which gives them a "coolness factor" and "fanboy-ism" that in essence is the same as that processed by Japanese Samurai. As such, people are convinced that if they were in charge, they could avoid all those pitfalls the real Nazis made and thus go on to RULE THE WORLD!!!.

of course that brushes over the whole "Quantity has a Quality all of its own" issue, or whether the Germans might have been better off, say, copying the T34 and mass producing it, rather than designing the Panther to over-top it. This is helped by the false impression that pop culture and high school history gives about the availability of the Germanys best tech. People tend to forget that the standard german infantry division in 1941 had five horses for every motor car and truck, for example.

[Aotrs Commander]

I think its because they feel it is more "interesting" to go counter-historical and try to "change History", and thus have a more attention grabbing story that will keep the viewing punters coming back. I agree that playing France would be a "harder" choice, but I get the feeling that youtubers shy away form that because they feel they will either win the battle of France (and defeating the Germans in 1939-1940, which would be "boring"), or loose and have to carry on as a minor power with whatever scraps they can salvage.....which would also be "boring".


on top of that, their is a certain cachet to the WW2 Axis, partly fed by the tendency of the Germans to favour Quality over Quantity (for example, the me 262 or the Tiger tank), which gives them a "coolness factor" and "fanboy-ism" that in essence is the same as that processed by Japanese Samurai. As such, people are convinced that if they were in charge, they could avoid all those pitfalls the real Nazis made and thus go on to RULE THE WORLD!!!.

of course that brushes over the whole "Quantity has a Quality all of its own" issue, or whether the Germans might have been better off, say, copying the T34 and mass producing it, rather than designing the Panther to over-top it. This is helped by the false impression that pop culture and high school history gives about the availability of the Germanys best tech. People tend to forget that the standard german infantry division in 1941 had five horses for every motor car and truck, for example.

You see this sort of thing particularly with WW2 wargamers, too. Everyone wants to field Tigers and King Tigers and what not and model those few outlying events that happened maybe once or wice in the course of history in their average evening games. I hink it's some sort of enedemic effect WW2 has on the populace, being old-but-not-too-old and well-documented and (over) analysed as well as holding a sort of mythos in history.

[Storm Bringer]

You see this sort of thing particularly with WW2 wargamers, too. Everyone wants to field Tigers and King Tigers and what not and model those few outlying events that happened maybe once or wice in the course of history in their average evening games. I hink it's some sort of enedemic effect WW2 has on the populace, being old-but-not-too-old and well-documented and (over) analysed as well as holding a sort of mythos in history.

like I said, the popular history of the war, both in entertainment (visual and interactive) and in general education (ie mandatory schooling), seeks to distil a monumentally complex and ever changing situation into something that can be explained, in 45 minute chunks, to Average Joe, who likes explosions and big guns but isn't interested in logistical analysis, or to Jimmy Smith in Class 4C, who cant even spell "logistical analysis", but needs to pass an exam in this subject to get into collage. This leads to a emphasis on simple answers, and "they had better tanks" is a nice, simple answer that Jimmy Smith can parrot back in his exams, and Average Joe can watch on TV without getting bored.

Since most people don't study history past secondary school*, this (over)simplified version is the highest level that the majority of the population are formally taught to, so its no wonder that these misconceptions exist.

Also, their is a big element of "heroic struggle". Let us not forget, that despite the fanboy-ism, the germans are, in the majority of media portrayals, the Bad Guys. In order for our heroes to be heroic, they need to be at a disadvantage, so that their eventual victory shows their great ability. Thus, the germans are shown to have better equipment, or to be able to use their best equipment a lot more often. Lets take two very well known and Influential WW2 portrayals: Saving Private Ryan, and Band of Brothers. In the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, we see brave American soldiers being slaughtered as they try to storm Omaha Beach. and it is the actions of Tom Hanks and his friends that overcomes the German MGs and gets them off this beach!. later in Saving Private Ryan, and in Band of brothers, they show outnumbered paratroopers holding off German armoured counterattacks with inadequate or improvised weapons, thus showing how badass the airborne are (they took down tanks with a SOCK!). Thus, the viewers are left with the impression that the germans generally had better equipment than the US or British forces.


for the wargamers, another factor is something that can loosely be called "exceptionalism". In short, Average Joe doesn't want to be Average Joe, he wants to be an exception to the norm. If he's Hauptmann Johan, the german tank commander, he wants to be in command of a full squad of mighty and powerful tiger tanks, not two Panzer 2s and pz 38(t) (plus another pair of tanks that are broke and waitning for repairs). this is fed by the general distain for boring logistical details in favour of more intresting areas, so wargamers tend to, for example, ignore the poor serviceability of the early Panthers when discussing its capability, in favour of its strong paper stats.



*secondary school = high school, or whatever the school the 10-16 year olds go to in your area.

[Murmaider]

Or maybe it's just boring to play as a democratic country, if you can't declare war on anyone in the early game:smalltongue:

There is a reason why everyone hates getting into a regency in EU.

[Storm Bringer]

Or maybe it's just boring to play as a democratic country, if you can't declare war on anyone in the early game:smalltongue:

There is a reason why everyone hates getting into a regency in EU.

bah, that's what cheats are for!



besides, I find that I need that early game peace as an allied power, because I am seriously outclassed and need to build up before I can take on anyone.

then again, I prefer to play as intermediate powers like Australia, Canada or Romania, as the level of micro-management needed to run Germany is a pain in the backside. Hopefully, the improved AI controls given by the new Battle Plan features will make me more willing to take on a major power.

[Teln]

I don't get the obsession with playing Axis. Every single youtuber I follow who has a pre-release version is playing as an axis power. Is it because they are somehow 'harder' to play because they lost? Try playing France then, or Poland. These games tend to give the Axis powers fare more benefits in game as it is anyway in the name of balance.

I am very much interested in getting the game but it will have to wait a while until such time as I can afford it. May have to wait until it goes on sale at some stage.

NGParadox is doing a Republican Spain campaign, if you're interested.


https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgJbWvlG6tf7or4xBdwV2gzgVJOELWCIC
He's had chronic supply issues and the Nationalists keep shooting down his planes--that difficult enough for you?

[Corvus]

Well, I succumbed and got the game. What sold me on it was the free Polish DLC that came with it. Poland is my default go-to nation when playing any strategy game (like CK2, EUIV, MTW, ETW etc).

Went in pretty much blind for the first game. Had left it on historical and so made preparations for the German attack in late '39. I only lasted a little longer than historical Poland. The problem was that UK/France never guaranteed me and so Germany could throw everything at me - 140 odd DIV and 2000+ planes. I'd also left 1/3rd of my army on the USSR border, where they did nothing as they never attacked. The UK did send 1(!) volunteer DIV (poor thing). My troops had a little better tech as I later found out and as a result I did inflict heavier casualties but I only had 700 planes and 60 DIV and so the result was inevitable.

Tried a second time, this time with historical off. Concentrated early on getting my infrastructure up while concentrating on making my defense as strong as possible. The main bulk of my force was INF made up of 7x INF/2x ART with Recce/Eng/AA/AT support. Had 60 units of those, but never could produce quite enough artillery to fully max them out. They were backed up by 22 other DIVS (10 CAV, 6 MTN, 4 LARM, 2 MOT). The war started even earlier this time - at the start of 39 when the USSR declared war. I held them off for a year, only slowly loosing ground. Had to send all troops to the front to do so and eventually joined the Allies. France actually sent 30 DIV to the fight while the UK/India/Australia all sent aircraft which allowed air dominance over the front.

Then Germany attacked. The French did what they could to halt the advance on my undefended western border while the UK eventually landed a few troops to help out but it was too late by then. The moment Poland fell Germany went to war with the USSR, resulting in a three way war between Axis/Communist/Allies. Germany had only lost around 80k troops in their attack on me, while I had bled the Soviets heavily. They had lost 840K in their invasion, compared to 180K for me and 20K from allies.

I called it then and are preparing for try three.

[Hoosigander]

Well, I succumbed and got the game. What sold me on it was the free Polish DLC that came with it. Poland is my default go-to nation when playing any strategy game (like CK2, EUIV, MTW, ETW etc).

Went in pretty much blind for the first game. Had left it on historical and so made preparations for the German attack in late '39. I only lasted a little longer than historical Poland. The problem was that UK/France never guaranteed me and so Germany could throw everything at me - 140 odd DIV and 2000+ planes. I'd also left 1/3rd of my army on the USSR border, where they did nothing as they never attacked. The UK did send 1(!) volunteer DIV (poor thing). My troops had a little better tech as I later found out and as a result I did inflict heavier casualties but I only had 700 planes and 60 DIV and so the result was inevitable.

Tried a second time, this time with historical off. Concentrated early on getting my infrastructure up while concentrating on making my defense as strong as possible. The main bulk of my force was INF made up of 7x INF/2x ART with Recce/Eng/AA/AT support. Had 60 units of those, but never could produce quite enough artillery to fully max them out. They were backed up by 22 other DIVS (10 CAV, 6 MTN, 4 LARM, 2 MOT). The war started even earlier this time - at the start of 39 when the USSR declared war. I held them off for a year, only slowly loosing ground. Had to send all troops to the front to do so and eventually joined the Allies. France actually sent 30 DIV to the fight while the UK/India/Australia all sent aircraft which allowed air dominance over the front.

Then Germany attacked. The French did what they could to halt the advance on my undefended western border while the UK eventually landed a few troops to help out but it was too late by then. The moment Poland fell Germany went to war with the USSR, resulting in a three way war between Axis/Communist/Allies. Germany had only lost around 80k troops in their attack on me, while I had bled the Soviets heavily. They had lost 840K in their invasion, compared to 180K for me and 20K from allies.

I called it then and are preparing for try three.

At least in HOI3 the Soviets only attacked when Warsaw fell. I'm currently playing a POlish game in HOI3, and I'm planing to use the Vistula as the basis for my defensive line. That entails ceding a chunk of Western Poland to the Germans initially, but at least one AAR writer had success with a similar strategy. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/nie-poddamy-sie-poland-1936-1-3v-normal-lv.470079/


for the wargamers, another factor is something that can loosely be called "exceptionalism". In short, Average Joe doesn't want to be Average Joe, he wants to be an exception to the norm. If he's Hauptmann Johan, the german tank commander, he wants to be in command of a full squad of mighty and powerful tiger tanks, not two Panzer 2s and pz 38(t) (plus another pair of tanks that are broke and waitning for repairs). this is fed by the general distain for boring logistical details in favour of more intresting areas, so wargamers tend to, for example, ignore the poor serviceability of the early Panthers when discussing its capability, in favour of its strong paper stats.

There is a strong element of this in WWII reenacting as well, judging by local reenactments the German ground forces consisted of 50% Waffen-SS and 50% fallschirmjägers.:smallsmile:

[houlio]

I started as Japan, but got quickly bored when the Germans fell to the USSR in 42, leaving me at war with the rest of the world. I decided to try out Romania as a minor, because they seemed fun with good access to resources. I mistakenly delved into Mobile Warfare for my first land doctrine (should have been superior firepower I think), and the war started when Axis Hungary declared on me, dragging in Germany, Italy, France, and the UK. It is currently 1942, and I have been pushed all the way back to my capital, Bucharest, twice. Each time, the Germans pull back divisions after failing to take the heavily fortified city, allowing me push back out and reclaim ~half of my country. I am the only mainland member of the Allies left at this point.

[Flickerdart]

I called it then and are preparing for try three.
The UK and France will start guaranteeing people/admitting them into the Allies with higher World Tension. I'm not sure if it's possible for you to cause some of that World Tension yourself (for example, volunteering troops to Republican Spain), or if causing this World Tension will make the Allies like you less.

You can also try and flip Communist or Fascist yourself. Poland gets national foci to improve relations with either the USSR or Germany, but dropping democracy will let you engage in wars of conquest against defenseless Eastern Europe, so that you are strong when the inevitable betrayal strikes.

[AgentPaper]

This game has taken over my life for the past few days. Been cranking out a solid average of one playthrough of the game per day, and still having fun. Current game is Facist Siam, making a faction with Japan and helping them conquer China, and hopefully in the future taking some land off of France and the UK as well. Siam starts off in a surprisingly good position to become a powerhouse, with a decent population (1.4 million), a lot of civilian factories, and that juicy juicy Rubber that everyone desperately needs and trades for, giving you even more factories from trade. You're one of the few countries that actually doesn't need to level up construction as a priority at all, since you'll have more than enough time to build up to full factories even with concentrated industry and converting many of your civilian factories to military ones.

As for other games, I've also played Italy (for my first game, not the tutorial though), which was fun, and Poland, where I gave up Danzig but defended against Russia and eventually turned the tide on them (with the help of a civil war) and flipped them to democratic, before turning around and getting revenge on Germany, taking back Danzig and much of Germany for my trouble. Who's partitioning who now! People's Republic of China was another good one, and really showed me the importance of logistics companies when you have a large army, especially in poor infrastructure areas like Siberia. Implementing those turned a bitter and drawn-out war with the Soviet Union into a one-sided curbstomp almost overnight.

Switzerland is another surprisingly fun game, I actually played them twice, both time joining the allies and helping turn the tide against Germany. By focusing exclusively on just 24 divisions of elite mountain infantry, with artillery, anti-tank, anti-air, lots of support companies, and the Superior Firepower doctrine, I was able to hold back combined German and Italian forces even after France fell and I was completely surrounded and cut off from the outside world. It didn't matter how many forces they brought, they simply couldn't break through my line, with just enough forces to protect my borders with a handful of reserves to shore up any weaknesses. It took a bit of micro to ensure that nothing important fell (I abandoned the western forests and a few of the southern mountain provinces), but just by being there I tied up at least 50-100 axis divisions. And if they ever did move troops away (as they did later in the game when the wars with the Allies and Soviet Union were heating up), I would punish them by hitting their weak divisions and expanding my borders south, eventually taking the port of Genoa and re-opening myself to reinforcements and trade with the outside world. Definitely a game I would suggest everyone try out at least once.

Overall, the game feels really solid right now, and though there are some areas I'd like to see improvement (enemy AI, battleplans, and the airforce UI), I'm thoroughly impressed with the game so far.

[Corvus]

The UK and France will start guaranteeing people/admitting them into the Allies with higher World Tension. I'm not sure if it's possible for you to cause some of that World Tension yourself (for example, volunteering troops to Republican Spain), or if causing this World Tension will make the Allies like you less.


I sat quietly and didn't generate any tension. On all occasions I was playing without historical ai and every time the war kicked off a good 3-9 months early than historical. I think because this happened it was hard for enough world tension to build up beforehand to enable the guarantee. Oddly, I've yet to see anything truly ahistorical happen in all those games. No faction flips, no strange wars, no assassinations or coups. The oddest thing I've seen was Hungary being given half of Czechoslovakia in the split up.

Not that I needed the guarantee in the last game. I've figured out Poland. When the war kicked off, I had a massive army waiting. 109 divisions and around 1 million men. They were not all fully up to strength in terms of artillery but were still very potent. 6 months later Germany had fallen. Lost 600k men. Germany had lost 1 million and Hungary 500k. The rest of the Allies hadn't even lost 1k men, and most of those were when a UK division blundered into the frontline after having landed at Kiel (which I had taken). During the entirety of the war they had done nothing beyond bombing runs. As a result I was able to annex all of Hungary and all but 1 German province (which became a puppet in the middle of Polish lands amusingly.) I did give Memel back to Lithuania though.

I had to race my army back to the eastern border after that as the Soviets were making noises. They foolishly declared war and I sent my armies forward, even though they were outnumbered. 12 months, 2.5 million Soviet and 500k Polish casualties later and the USSR had fallen. The Allies had helped out a little, mainly by making suicidal runs at Leningrad. At least the Dutch had more sense. They sent a number of divisions by land and helped out on the southern front. Most of the USSR was annexed to Poland as a result.

So how to Poland.

Build only military factories. Civ factories take to long for not enough benefit. Beside, you get enough from taking Germany.

Don't bother with fighters. You can't match the Germans for numbers and the way it currently stands they get butchered with ease. Oddly your CAS seem to survive much much better than fighters. I did have one factory slowly turning out more of them, but you can't really afford more than that,

Don't bother with tanks, not until much later on. They take up too many factories and resources that you need elsewhere.

Switch over to Superior Firepower doctrine. You don't have the manpower to match the Germans and Soviets so you have to rely on artillery firepower. I can see a nerf coming to line artillery at some point. It is just too potent. Take a couple of national focuses from the Prepare for the Next War line to get 50% off land doctrines to research that line.

Concentrate mostly on infantry weapons, support and artillery with some AT and AA. Churn out Infantry divisions made up up 7INF/2ART with ENG/REC/AT/AA/ART support. I also had some motorised built, but mostly when foot infantry.

My final line up mid '39 when the war started was 2 MTN, 10 CAV, 10 MOT and 87 INF. 24 INF were set up against Eastern Prussia and quickly overran it. The MTN and 22 INF were set up on the Hungarian border. They were outnumbered but thanks to the terrain were able to hold until the 1st Army up north were able to reposition to help and push into Hungary. 41 INF were the main force, set up along the German border. The CAV and MOT were in a small 20 unit army set up along the northern coast. Though lightweight and lacking artillery or any support elements, they were fast and able to punch through the northern flank while the main army advanced.

Right along the western borders are a whole lot of tasty resources. Taking them quickly not only feeds your industry but also denies the Germans.

You need to take out the Germans fast (or hope the Allies actually help) as the Soviets will be breathing down your neck soon. It may be necessary to trade Eastern Poland to keep them at bay. It hurts in therms of manpower but all the spoils from German can make up for it.

One thing I did noticed against both the Germans and Soviets is that at some point the dam walls will just break. After months of fending off constant attacks they just collapse and are driven back rapidly.

[Storm Bringer]

I
One thing I did noticed against both the Germans and Soviets is that at some point the dam walls will just break. After months of fending off constant attacks they just collapse and are driven back rapidly.


I've noticed that a bit in my games. and it nearly happened to me, to boot. I think what happens is a combination of overspread production of too many different things and cumulative combat losses, which together led to the front line divisions all suddenly running out of material at around the same time, and being unable to draw form the stockpiles, which were all empty form the massive spike in consumption that accompanies large scale combat.

I nearly got caught out by it, playing as Italy. My front vs france in Providence ground on and on, and my attention was diverted elsewhere, only for me to flick back for a random check to realise almost all my divisions were seriously under-strength and lacking in kit. I had to halt my offensive for months, and basically retask all my air force production, which sorted the problem.

I think the AI basically doesn't put enough emphasis on stockpiling, but tries to field as many divisions as it can, which means when it gets into serious combat it can sometimes end up trying to supply too many divisions at once, which leads to the sudden collapse you saw.

[Flickerdart]

Isn't that sort of what happened in real life? The Wehrmacht planned on quick conquests, putting the conquered populace to work in their own factories to resupply. It worked until they got bogged down in Russia, at which point their supply lines failed and they crumbled against the Soviets' bottomless reserves of reliable, average tanks and soldiers.

[Storm Bringer]

Isn't that sort of what happened in real life? The Wehrmacht planned on quick conquests, putting the conquered populace to work in their own factories to resupply. It worked until they got bogged down in Russia, at which point their supply lines failed and they crumbled against the Soviets' bottomless reserves of reliable, average tanks and soldiers.

short answer: yhea, but no.

Longer answer:


your right the germans planned for quick kills, and one facet of that was the Germans only really shifted onto a proper war economy very late on, like 1943 late, so up to that point most of their factories were still running 9-5 shifts with weekend, rather than the 24 hour shifts and continuous production that the Allies had all moved to much earlier on. read up on Albert Speer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Speer) and the changes he made once he was put in charge of production, and the massive increase he was able to put into place once he had authority to rationalize the war effort.


In HOI terms, they never really moved off early or partial mobilization while the allies shifted to total as fast as they could. :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

and with the USSR, they went in with a serious underestimate of the size of the Red Army. At one point in the initial Barbarossa drive, one of the German field marshals made a comment to effect that they had already encircled and destroyed more divisions than their pre-attack intelligence claimed the Russians had, and yet the Russians quite clearly had a lot more troops available.

however, they never really "collapsed" because they ran out of kit, they were ground down in almost endless defensive battle form pretty much Kursk onwards, but held a more or less coherent front line until the bitter end.

[Corvus]

I'm currently engaged in one epic struggle which at one point I felt I was on the verge of loosing.

Playing as Poland (naturally) and was going to stay non-aligned and found 'Between the Seas' faction. I must say that Polish Revanchism is a nice focus. Can justify war at 10% threat rather than 40% and do it 25% faster. Have to wait unto Japan goes to war with China normally to generate enough tension, which means it is around the start of '38 you can go to war. I took on Romania and crushed them fairly easily. Romania is a good target as it has a handy boost to civilian, military and naval factories plus all that tasty oil. On top of that you get Bulgaria and Yugoslavia wanting to join your faction.

Did run into one problem - while the war was still going, the Baltic Pact focus ended. Latvia joined but Estonia rejected it (which I have never seen before). What is more they proved impossible to invite after the war. Despite their opinion of me being +235, it came no where near giving enough modifiers to overcome the crippling penalties to invite to faction.

Seeing war looming with Germany I made preparations, building double forts along the length of the Polish border with Germany and Slovakia. I also started a coup in Germany, a democratic one in the Rhine. It triggered just before the German invasion and the German Republic joined up with the Allies, bringing them in on the war. They then proceeded to do nothing.

Meanwhile the Germans DOWed Poland and surged forward, only to be smashed back by the forts. I quickly swept through East Prussia, bringing the army from there to the front line and pushed the Germans back a little way but halted before long due to losses. Shortly after Italy joined in, DOWing Yugoslavia and the two wars merged. I had built a force of Yugoslavian and Bulgarian troops that they had given me down there and used it to capture Albania before moving up to the front lines. I was unable to divert extra troops there and very slowly the weight of German and Italian numbers pushed the line back.

While this was going on, Germany DOWed Benelux and swept through them with ease and into France, despite by this stage having most of their forces tied down by me and the Axis already having taking 750k+ losses. I have no idea what the Allies were doing (messing around in Africa most likely) but it wasn't fighting.

Just as I felt things were beginning to stabilise, ominous noises came out of the east - USSR was on the verging of pressing claims on East Poland. I moved my last reserves (31 DIVs) to the front - they had been keeping an eye on the Hungarians to that stage. I crash built and deployed about 20 more barely trained and very under-equipped INF/MOT units (including a handful of Lt ARM and Lt SPART) and started work on forts. I also pulled the cavalry out of the line against the Germans and sent them down to the Romanian-USSR border.

Despite this I was massively outnumbered and when the Soviets attacked I was forced back from the front line. Soviet losses were heavy - around 2:1 in my favour - but they had 3:1 advantage in the number of units.

Out of desperation, I abandoned Romania and pulled back my Yugoslav army to the bottom of the nation. the Soviets flooded through Romania and Bulgaria while the Germans flooded through Yugoslavia, coming to meet at the border. I had expected them to come to blows but no such luck happened. Just to see what happened I released Romania. They become neutral and the Soviets were forced to leave, amusingly, but they still held Bulgaria and still were pushing me back deeper into Poland, drawing within a couple of provinces of Warsaw.

It was my darkest hour by this stage. I'd lost Romania. Bulgaria and Yugoslavia had capitulated (though I still had around 40 DIVs of their brave soldiers fighting for me), Latvia had gone Communist and switched sides and eastern Poland was being over run. What is more my troops were badly out of equipment - only around 3/4 had infantry weapons and they had only 1/3 to 1/4 of the required AT & AA. My airforce was non-existent and I had only 3 subs. On the positive side, I had upgraded half the inf weapons and artillery to the next level.

Rather than slowly dying by inches, I decided to go down fighting, ordering the western army to begin a general advance against the Germans. To my surprise it paid off and the German line was thrown back time and again. I quickly over ran Berlin and pressed onwards. It did so well that I took one 24-DIV army off the front lines to head back east to help the defence against the Soviet hordes. It left around 70 DIVs on the western front, 40 DIVs down in Yugoslavia and around 100 facing the Soviets. However numbers were deceptive there. Only around half of them were decent troops. The other half were made up of Lithuanian/Latvians, cavalry, green under-equipped infantry and MOT. The MOT were meant to have between them 1500 light tanks and 480 SP art. They had half a dozen tanks and twenty SPART.

Meanwhile the Allies had at last done something by invading Italy and sensing the time was right I unleashed the Yugolsav/Bulgarian army. They liberated Bulgaria from the Soviets and pushed north, to meet a Polish army headed south through Austria. The Allies had began to liberate the Netherlands and Belgium and the Germans decided they had had enough.

Leaving the Allies to deal with the Italians, I hurried my troops back to the Soviet front to blunt another Soviet thrust - only for more problems to arise. The Hungarians declared war on Romania, who joined the Allies. In response the Hungarians joined the Axis and I had to divert troops back to deal with that. The Soviets flooded troops into Hungary even though they weren't allied, and tried to break out there.

The main western army, which I had hoped to use to shore on the front, instead had to divert to deal with the new threat. They immediately attacked and drove the Soviets and Hungarians back, and after some heavy fighting forced the Hungarians to capitulate. This left large numbers of Soviets exposed and they were cut off. In the largest victory to date, 36 DIVs and 300,000 Soviets were caught in one pocket and diverted.

Meanwhile the Allies had at last forced Italy to surrender. Unfortunately I ran into a problem. Despite doing the bulk of the work against Germany the entirety of it was given to the democratic Republic of Germany and I got nothing. Curses. I was forced to be content with Hungary and half of Italy, including it's east African holdings. Better than nothing.

I started up my offensive against the Soviets, only for more problems to occur. First Lithuania flipped to Communist and became part of the USSR despite being part of my faction and not having any part of it occupied. It shattered my northern defences and left an army cut off fighting in Latvia. Fortunately I was able push the Soviets back and link up with them and rescue them.

Speaking of problems, another one cropped up in the form of the French Civil war. Most of France went communist, who then joined Comintern and as a byproduct dragged the Allies into the war. I sent one army to the French/Italian border to deal with while the rest started to push back the Soviets.

The current situation is in mid '42. After 3.5 million Soviet casualties, I now hold Leningrad/Moscow/Stalingrad. The Soviets will fall soon and I can get a moment to rebuild my batter armies. From a height of over 200 DIVs, I am down to 170. 30 have been lost due to sheer attrition. It sounds a lot, but around 1/3 are foreign troops of lesser effectiveness.

When the Soviets do fall I need to work out what next - probably go and deal with Japan. But first I will need to build a functioning air force and navy. And after that, the world.

[Flickerdart]

Sounds like you should liberate Eastern Europe from the Allies, Axis, and Comintern, press them into your faction, and then head West to reclaim the German lands that you deserve.

[Corvus]

That is the plan, eventually. Though if how I got screwed over by the Soviet peace conference is any indication it may not work.

The Soviets didn't take long to capitulate, not after I took the Leningrad/Moscow/Stalingrad line. After inflicting over 4 million Soviet casualties and taking the vast majority of the land, we went to the peace conference. The Allies contribution was retaking France from the French Commune and a small part north of Turkey - they didn't even reach Grozny.

I had no options to puppet any of the nations involved. Meanwhile the Allies established democratic Russia, Mongolia, Sinkiang, Tannu Tuva and worst of all my loyal ally Latvia. I was able to claim most of western Russia and force the release of Lithuania and Estonia but I was hoping on puppeting or at least forcing into my faction a number of those nations.

After the peace conference Estonia, Iran and Albania sided with me. Lithuania remained communist and so is a choice target in the future, assuming the Allies don't guarantee them.

Since then the China-Japan war has ground on. I sent a large amount of surplus gear to China, including 3000 units of artillery. They are in trouble though. The USA has declared war on Japan for some unknown reason but that war has remained quiet.

I, in the meantime, have focused on rebuilding the infrastructure left wrecked by war and upgrading my armies. Western Russia provided a mass of factories and I have been churning out infantry equipment, tanks, planes, artillery,
trucks and APCs, all in readiness for the next war. The problem is that there are too many fronts and not enough units. It will require careful planning.

To spice things up and try and weaken the Allies I have initiated fascist coups in Germany and the USA. Hopefully that will draw the Allies into the war, weakening them and allowing me to swoop when the time is right....

[Corvus]

Well, I got a years grace during which I rebuilt the damaged infrastructure, upgraded equipment, starting building a navy and air force and started work on two new divisions. One was a medium armour div (4 ARM/3MECH/2SPART). The other was a new motorised division (6 MOT/1 LT ARM/2 LT SPART). I managed to upgrade about 1/4 of my inf to the new MOT divs when war happened.

I think it may have been the result of a bug. When Germany became democratic, they switched to the basic national focus tree. When the Soviets also became democractic, they stuck with the Soviet NF tree, which included claims on eastern Poland. Which they used to justify a war and then declare it. Who then joined the Allies and called them in. Almost all of them. So I found myself in war with Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, UK, Canada, Liberia, Romania, Greece, Turkey, South Africa, Russia and the British Raj. New Zealand stayed out for a couple of years and Australia for a few more. On my side I had Estonia, Yugoslavia, Albania Bulgaria and Iran. Portugal and Venezuela both send volunteers.

The problem I had was that I just didn't have the troops to cover everywhere at once, especially not with invasions happening everywhere. I had to have a couple of armies of fire teams just jumping from one fight to the next to beat off attacks while the main armies slowly took down one country before moving onto the next. It took 8 long gruelling years to wear them down, prolonged by the fact Poland has no invasion capability to start with and made worse by having to conquer Australia and Canada to end the fight.

I ended up nuking London and large parts of Canada and New Zealand in the end due to their idiocy.

By the time it had ended (in late '49) I was rocking modern armour and jet aircraft. Rebuilt the army so the inf were all mechanised with attached modern armour and modern SPART, stationed over 20,000 aircraft in Canada and invaded the USA. The ground war was easy - swept through the US and into Mexico with minimal losses - 20K over all. In Mexico I inflicted 200K losses for just 2K of my own. End game gets a little too easy. The air war was bloody though. In the east coast alone in 2 weeks over 10,000 planes were destroyed, half on each side.

Anyway I learnt a bit from the game and am now ready for the ironman achievement runs.

[Corvus]

Patch 1.1 is now out.

One of the things they tweaked was AI reacting to pocketing - and boy do they react now.

As part of my Poland strategy I like to take both Czech and Romania for all the juicy factories they have. When the Germans attack I abandon western Czech, which protects my southern flank (unless Hungary joins in.)

Normally, due to guarantee-happy nations (I'm looking at you UK - you guarantee everyone but me) I was having to fight both at once. I had to do Czech straight away to prevent Germany grabbing it and if you don't do Romania at the same time then it will be guaranteed by the tension you generate.

Pre-patch it used to be easy to drive a force south into Czechoslavakia and divide the nation in two given how think it was in the east. Not anymore.

The Ai reacts extremely aggressively to prevent it. They launch constant 1-2 DIV attacks against my spearhead to prevent it moving at all, just tying it down, while launching heavier forces at the flanks. I can't advance and they can't break my lines, resulting in Great War style attritional warfare. Which is kind of appropriate given both sides had no tanks to speak of.