Hearts of Iron 3 - WW2 Grand Strat

[Indy500]

Actually, I have only recently discovered that 10 spies internally and lower neutrality helps considerably. I started out using counter espionage and only recently changed it, which can go some way to explain the delay I expect. Does it really move that quickly though? I swear I've had this set since 1942 and it is only now beginning to lower. I'm at 43%.

Brazil starts at 80%.

Britain is at 33% towards me with a threat level of 11.

When you load up a game, you can change country by clicking on a different one on the map it's another way to play around with things without editing the game files.

 

[philstanbridge]

I'm struggling a bit with mobilization here. I've built up a reasonable force, mobilized them a month prior to declaring war, and now it's several months into combat and the majority still haven't properly mobilized/organised. Do you know how long it should take?

I built most of my forces as reserves for economical reasons but this has backfired badly. I got attacked almost straight away by an enormous stack of British/Indian colonial and Columbian infantry - about 70,000 men all on one square!!! Fortunately I was dug-in so I had a few little bonuses. That said, because my forces were not properly organised I was stuffed. They broke after a few days fighting and now I've lost a chunk of Brazil

I've noticed it takes absolutely ages to organise my divisions, and even when they are 100% manned, they are still appearing as 'reserves' with the exclamation mark, and disorganised. I have been studying the relevant tech/doctrines as far as I know (organisation +20%) but I can't seem to work it out. Anything I should know about this?

 

[Indy500]

I'm struggling a bit with mobilization here. I've built up a reasonable force, mobilized them a month prior to declaring war, and now it's several months into combat and the majority still haven't properly mobilized/organised. Do you know how long it should take?

Shouldn't take that long if you've assigned the IC in the production screen.

I built most of my forces as reserves for economical reasons but this has backfired badly. I got attacked almost straight away by an enormous stack of British/Indian colonial and Columbian infantry - about 70,000 men all on one square!!! Fortunately I was dug-in so I had a few little bonuses. That said, because my forces were not properly organised I was stuffed. They broke after a few days fighting and now I've lost a chunk of Brazil

What was your officer ratio? What was the organisation value? (click on a division counter and hover your mouse over one of the brigades)

I've noticed it takes absolutely ages to organise my divisions, and even when they are 100% manned, they are still appearing as 'reserves' with the exclamation mark, and disorganised.

The exclamation mark doesn't matter. If it's at full strength and organisation then it's mobilised.

I have been studying the relevant tech/doctrines as far as I know (organisation +20%) but I can't seem to work it out. Anything I should know about this?

Oh, another thing you can do is load up your save and select the UK and/or Colombia, then check their officer ratios and troops' organisation values.

 

[philstanbridge]

All my IC is taken up with production, but it's green and not red. I've full units being pushed out.

Office ratio at present is 129% - organisation depends, but for one unit that is showing as 'reserve' they are 57.645 (yellow/white numbers) - now I was under the impression that's total organisation because it doesn't go any higher?

 

[Indy500]

All my IC is taken up with production, but it's green and not red. I've full units being pushed out.

Office ratio at present is 129% - organisation depends, but for one unit that is showing as 'reserve' they are 57.645 (yellow/white numbers) - now I was under the impression that's total organisation because it doesn't go any higher?

57 isn't that high, British units are usually past 100 by 1942. As I said before, officer ratio and doctrines affect this. When you go to order a unit in the production screen you'll see a spreadsheet-like view of their stats, check the columns for organisation value there.

 

[philstanbridge]

57 isn't that high, British units are usually past 100 by 1942. As I said before, officer ratio and doctrines affect this. When you go to order a unit in the production screen you'll see a spreadsheet-like view of their stats, check the columns for organisation value there.

I've just loaded up the game as the British and OMG!! lol..

Interestingly, their organisation is similar to mine in Brazil - it's around 50-60%, but the difference is their support. They have been busy my god. They have large calibre howitzer support, 3cm mortars, piat, etc etc. The only thing they seem to lack in this theatre is any form of tank. No tanks/motorized vehicles other than plenty of ships! Probably because of the terrain, but I have been able to put my light tanks to good use it would seem. My god, I looked at their production and research lists and they scrolled for AGES. I've never seen so much stuff. To make it worse, they are using expeditionary forces in Brazil too, so I really am super stuffed

What's also interesting is the fact they cannot see all my forces that are in proximity to theirs. Obviously some kind of FOW is working there, but it could also be because I am in jungle. They have one division next to mine, but they can't see me! All their units are fully operational however, no reserves.

I've just checked the organisational levels in the production screen and everything I can produce is between 35-40%! So that is my problem - so what should I be researching to help this?

 

[Indy500]

I've just loaded up the game as the British and OMG!! lol..

Interestingly, their organisation is similar to mine in Brazil - it's around 50-60%, but the difference is their support. They have been busy my god. They have large calibre howitzer support, 3cm mortars, piat, etc etc. The only thing they seem to lack in this theatre is any form of tank. No tanks/motorized vehicles other than plenty of ships! Probably because of the terrain, but I have been able to put my light tanks to good use it would seem. My god, I looked at their production and research lists and they scrolled for AGES. I've never seen so much stuff. To make it worse, they are using expeditionary forces in Brazil too, so I really am super stuffed

The weapon techs improve their combat stats, simply put. Since the British have a much higher leadership rating to start with, they're able to research much more. Not much you can do about that short of editing the game files.

What's also interesting is the fact they cannot see all my forces that are in proximity to theirs. Obviously some kind of FOW is working there, but it could also be because I am in jungle. They have one division next to mine, but they can't see me! All their units are fully operational however, no reserves.

Usually you can't see full details anyway, unless you have spies set to military espionage in the target country.

I've just checked the organisational levels in the production screen and everything I can produce is between 35-40%! So that is my problem - so what should I be researching to help this?

Well the land doctrines help but they take time, your best bet is increase the officer ratio to 200% in the short term. Unfortunately this will mean sacrificing espionage, diplomacy and research due to Brazil's paltry leadership.

 

[Deleted member 61728]

Do you guys have to save restart then load hoi3 a lot because of slow day to day processing time how are you managing?

Im having a hard time around 1939 and beyond due to everything coming to a crawl every 20-30 min which is really annoying when your into a game.

 

[Indy500]

Do you guys have to save restart then load hoi3 a lot because of slow day to day processing time how are you managing?

Im having a hard time around 1939 and beyond due to everything coming to a crawl every 20-30 min which is really annoying when your into a game.

No (takes a few seconds for a day to elapse), but the game frequently uses above my total RAM (2GB) which slows things down during wars.

 

[philstanbridge]

Do you guys have to save restart then load hoi3 a lot because of slow day to day processing time how are you managing?

Im having a hard time around 1939 and beyond due to everything coming to a crawl every 20-30 min which is really annoying when your into a game.

Nope, works fine for me too, but then I've got a machine with 4gb ram, a 5850 and a quad-core amd. I sometimes notice a slight slow down during the fighting phases mind you, but nothing that bad.

 

[philstanbridge]

Okay question time please!!

Progressing nicely in my Brazilian Axis campaign. It's Feb 45 and a lot has happened in central and south america, but it looks like a stalemate in Europe. Not much movement as far as I can work out, which seems principally due to supply and attrition problems.

Which leads me on nicely to my first question - supply. I can't work it out even after reading the instructions. Is it simply a matter of having a line of supply from the main port, ie. by linking the quadrants up by placing units in them. Or is it something much more intuitive. Because I've reclaimed my provinces AND started to invade, but now I am struggling with supply. Every other turn I notice a quadrant turns blue/striped, and I suddenly am warned about supply problems. I am using a transport plane to supply individual units but this is slow going and costly as you can appreciate.

Second question - how to conquer/liberate lands - I've captured the Dutch and the British colonies but nothing has happened. I have units in every quadrant and the political map is showing a striped green patern. Is it just a matter of time before i can claim these lands as mine?

More to follow I'm sure - I'm just looking at the Iron Cross mod for it, and wow it looks amazing!

 

[Indy500]

Okay question time please!!

Progressing nicely in my Brazilian Axis campaign. It's Feb 45 and a lot has happened in central and south america, but it looks like a stalemate in Europe. Not much movement as far as I can work out, which seems principally due to supply and attrition problems.

Which leads me on nicely to my first question - supply. I can't work it out even after reading the instructions. Is it simply a matter of having a line of supply from the main port, ie. by linking the quadrants up by placing units in them. Or is it something much more intuitive.

If the province isn't isolated poor infrastructure might be causing problems. Or you need more IC on supplies (but this would show up in the interface).

Because I've reclaimed my provinces AND started to invade, but now I am struggling with supply. Every other turn I notice a quadrant turns blue/striped, and I suddenly am warned about supply problems. I am using a transport plane to supply individual units but this is slow going and costly as you can appreciate.

Maybe infrastructure again. What does it say in the unit details for the ones out of supply? It should normally have a barrels icon with the name of the centre they are drawing supplies from.

Second question - how to conquer/liberate lands - I've captured the Dutch and the British colonies but nothing has happened. I have units in every quadrant and the political map is showing a striped green patern. Is it just a matter of time before i can claim these lands as mine?

Once you've kicked out the enemy troops the territory is occupied and you can select administration options, it's striped on the political map because the countries opposing you are still fighting elsewhere. Once they give up you just annex it and no longer have to set an occupation policy.

 

[philstanbridge]

If the province isn't isolated poor infrastructure might be causing problems. Or you need more IC on supplies (but this would show up in the interface).

Maybe infrastructure again. What does it say in the unit details for the ones out of supply? It should normally have a barrels icon with the name of the centre they are drawing supplies from.

Once you've kicked out the enemy troops the territory is occupied and you can select administration options, it's striped on the political map because the countries opposing you are still fighting elsewhere. Once they give up you just annex it and no longer have to set an occupation policy.

Generally there is poor infrastructure because it is primarily jungle and forrested areas. Plus mountainous/hilly. The best supply routes seem to be by the coast. I could develop more industry in the form of factories but it's too late in the game now really. I'm getting a bit tied up with certain aspects.

All units in the north are drawing supplies and fuel from Rio, which is south east, but towards the bottom anyway. I have supply routes going in to two ports however, yet they are taking their supplies from the lowest port. Seems strange?

The colonies still have troops fighting in different areas, and obviously Britain still has a lot of provinces elsewhere. I guess I can't claim these lands as mine but I have setup local government to control the areas. Not that it seems effective.

 

[Indy500]

Generally there is poor infrastructure because it is primarily jungle and forrested areas. Plus mountainous/hilly. The best supply routes seem to be by the coast. I could develop more industry in the form of factories but it's too late in the game now really. I'm getting a bit tied up with certain aspects.

How many troops do you have in occupied provinces?

All units in the north are drawing supplies and fuel from Rio, which is south east, but towards the bottom anyway. I have supply routes going in to two ports however, yet they are taking their supplies from the lowest port. Seems strange?

There have been some complaints about the supply system on the forums, but that is usually to do with overseas conquests...are the units getting any supplies at all?

The colonies still have troops fighting in different areas, and obviously Britain still has a lot of provinces elsewhere. I guess I can't claim these lands as mine but I have setup local government to control the areas. Not that it seems effective.

It's basically a tradeoff between dissent\more resources, or manpower\little resources from the provinces. You can force a harsher regime on the territory to fully economically exploit it, but expect no willing volunteers and higher dissent in the process.

 

[Nieldo]

Just thought I would post a screenshot montage from a multilayer game I'm taking part in. Playing Romania and the war with Russia just kicked off, Germany has given me a small expeditionary force of 4 Armour and a HQ. And I plan to use them to the fullest

Like I said, multiplayer game, each major nation has a player controlling it, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Russia, USA, UK, Japan. Anyway when the war first started with Russia they had only one player controlling all its forces so he just couldn't keep up when getting attacked in Swedan, Norway, Finland by Germany as well as the main frontline again German main, Hungary and Romania.

Heres the shot, multiplayer is how this game was ment to be played

We just finished playing this weeks session and I managed to destroy all divisons in the pocket bar one.

Edit: Forgot to put this in here, the Italy player is doing an AAR on the hoi3 forums, check it out http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472528

 

[philstanbridge]

Very nice mate, well done. That is obviously how it is meant to be played. I binned my Brazilian campaign in the end and started a fresh game using the DiDay's ICE mod, which is supposed to be the best AI mod for it. Playing as Germany, but I've found it so difficult, but there's no denying it's a huge improvement in many ways. Starting from 36, I've already conquered Poland and Lithuania, although Poland does not annex, for whatever reason. I think it's something to do with the events, and the fact I'm a few years ahead of schedule. It's supposed to be played historically so I have been told. Needs a lot of time invested which I do not have.

 

[lucky13]

That looks a great game, can't wait to get this soon just need to get payed and finish another couple of games. Is it best just to get off steam? Or somewhere else?

 

[philstanbridge]

I bought my copy off Steam, as I do most games these days. It's more expensive mind you. You can pick it up considerably cheaper on the high street.

 

[philstanbridge]

Hmm I a bit stuck with occupation - can anyone shine some light on this for me please?

I've restarted twice and played through to the same point so as to understand the process better. I'm plaing as Germany, 1936, and have beaten Poland to a pulp in 4 months of heavy fighting. Rather than surrender they have a government in exile. All this is fair enough. But what do I do now with the country? I have obviously been able to utilise its resources and manpower which is great, but at the risk of revolt. Will it always be like this now? I would have preferred to annex or create a puppet state, but these options weren't available to me. Basically I'm running my divisions around trying to keep the zones out of revolt! Surely I can annex or puppet? I have been able to annex a much smaller country when I played beforehand and that's what I want to achieve.

 

[Indy500]

Use MP (military police) brigades to keep partisans under control. Until the Polish government has no allied countries left to run to you can't fully annex their territory.