Anyone playing it? It's a very interesting WW2 RTS/simulation.

I only played a few hours, but I just started 1936 game as Brazil and I was having heaps of fun ( until I got buttraped ).



In 2 1/2 years, after having to reorganize 100% of the existing brasilian armed forces, I managed to conquer most of South America ( Colombia and Venezuela were taken after the screenshot - Chile and Argentinia already mobilised and are too strong ). Unfortunatly I overstreched and while trying to push for Panama and a small rebellion around the north, the USA made an amphibiam landing with around 20 divisions near Rio and it's pretty much game over now, as they cut my supply lines.

My only complaint with the game is that's a bit slow if you start in 1936; but the fact that you have to plan carefully really keeps me going.

Honestly didn't know this had come out. Absolutely loved HoI2 though.

<3 HoI2 is three an upgrade over 2?

I haven't played 2, but reading the forums, HoI3 1.4 is way better than HoI2 + Expansion.

And there is a new expansion coming for HoI3 that looks really really cool.

yikes this game is overwhelmingly complex (just started as a complete noob to the series).

looks sweet as hell though.

Yeah this game has two problems that scare away most first-timers:

1) The learning curve is very steep.

2) You can go an hour or more without any action ( as in war ) at all.

If you need any tips, just ask away. While I'm no veteran, I can do most stuff correctly on full manual, so I may be able to help you out.

As a big tip for the fun factor ( IMO ), I always use the neutrality cheat. It enables you to declare war whenever you want, and you don't have to spend years using spies to make a single enemy look bad to be able to declare war. It hugely lowers down times.

I simply motivate it with the fact that my nation started to use spies to lower it's neutrality way before 1936.

As far as trade goes, I suggest you to never set it on full auto. The AI sucks at trading, and while you will make big monies/whatever you need with a little manual trading, the AI will **** you up big time

I just keep getting completely stomped like right away playing as Poland.

I'm pretty sure that if you start in '36 on normal, you have a very high chance of survival if you make the right choices.

Hell, I managed to conquer everything from greece up to poland with yugoslavia. You just need the correct overall strategy and allies. Unfortunatly I got stomped by Russia after a bad move

In another game, as Republican Spain, I made every effort to join the Axis ASAP. I declared war on Portugal ( before joining ) and after having conquered the hiberian peninsula, I made an amphibious attack on south afrika and the portoguese afrikan colonies, conqering everything up to central afrika. At that point I was pretty much in trouble as England felt threatened by me. So I joined the Axis and started the second world war myself by invading greece.

Unfortunatly Germany decided that I had to STFU and they took command of all military operations in europe after they conquered everything up to the russian border ( thanks to me I might add ), so I had to pretty much follow orders while continuing the expansion in afrika.

Even with my efforts to keep the USA out of the war, I overstreched as usual and got raped shortly after they joined. Germany was more then capable of resisting an invasion, but the troops sent in my aid couldn't do much as far as my land possessions were concerned; so I quit

Here is a little pic of Germany mopping up what remains of Vichy France. As you can see, I also declared war on those swiss bastards (brown). Neutrality my ass, as they gave rights of passage to the allies. Italy also decided to play with the big boys, conquering good part of Arfika. Also note my resources; no cheats used there; just some brilliant trading.

I always love the idea of these games as I'm really into diplomacy, especially 1930-41, but I always find them unsatisfying and disappointing as there are too many limitations and war always seems inevitable.

Is it possible to use a range of diplomatic powers? And can you drastically change the turn of events? For instance, if you're Germany and you want an anti-Bolshevik alliance with Britain, can you send a good diplomat that has a good chance of securing this (instead of the fool von Ribbentrop)? Or if you're Britain, can you make better overtures to the Soviet Union than what happened in reality, and maybe get some sort of agreement so they don't sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and therefore Hitler leaves Poland alone? Can you be Spain after the Civil War in which Franco lost, and maybe you're in the Soviet sphere of influence? Can you join the Comintern?

Or, is the game concerned primarily with moving military divisions about and not really diplomatic relations? I guess that's what most people want, and although I imagine it is fun, I'd like to be able to have different options for agreements, secret treaty clauses etc.

Agh so many questions I know, but I use these examples as they're topics I'm interested in and I just want to get a feel for how much I will like it, and was wondering whether ideology and the way you try and get an alliance can determine success.

I study Intl. Politics atm if that's any excuse for hoping for such a nerdy thing in a game.

Edit - Forget the Spanish CW question, just noticed someone said they were Republican Spain. But why try and join the Axis of Anti-Comintern powers as a leftist country?

It is entirely possible to do some crazy things in HOI2. For example, USA can join commintern or the confederate states could succeed from the union again. As Germans if you dont declare war or reoocupy Rhineland your people will think your a weak leader and become unhappy so war is pretty much inevitable.

HOI3 has some upgrades over 2 but also introduces more glitches, most of which you can fix by customizing the data files.

Because Axis would have been able to give me immediate help in case of an attack. I also received much needed help from italy in Arfika.

Russia has no right of passage in germany, that means they would have had to create a naval convoy to bring troops my way during the war I started against France. That also would have meant pretty much total obliteration unless I managed to convince Russia to start a blitzkrieg against germany. Spain is no superpower, and my expansion weakened the borders heavily. I needed strong and adiacent allies to support my expansionist ego.

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As for your questions, during most historical event, you have the choice of either following history or choosing your own path. Like the guy before me said, if you don't annex certain regions, unsatisfaction may arise; but you can deal with this by producing more consumer goods etc. You can pretty much act the way you want. With diplomatic actions, you can keep USA out of the war etc. While this game is not focused purely around diplomacy, and I don't know if I would suggest it for the pure diplomacy, the overall package is really worth checking out. If you have much patience that is.