Hearts of Iron

[Torenico]

Happy New Year to you too.

1st, isn't constructing of the land forts to a reasonable level (5+) going to take just too long? From what I see, you have a chance to make the Oder line work if you stop working on all others and cut your panzer-making IC budget.

2nd, I don't know how to make HQs other than new Corps HQs when I detach a unit from its former hierarchy.
So the question is, how do I make "army", "army group" and "theatre" HQs? Could you enlighten me? Because for now I have OKW (originally Bitburg HQ) and Berlin HQ with 6 Xs and "Heeresgruppe C" (Originally Wien HQ) with I think 5 Xs.

3rd, How, for Christ's sake, is your national unity 88%? I'm at 1944 and my national unity is 55% and dropping, and I'm not even at war with the soviet union!

Hi

1, I'm not creating new units now, the last time I created units were quite a lot of AA Brigades which I set up in the rearguard waiting to be assigned to frontline units. Most of my IC is destined to supplies, reinforcing and production. Since my manpower is quite low, I will be saving it to reinforce beaten frontline units, for the moment. I really can't produce more tanks, my Fuel reserves are too low and more tanks will just eat whatever I have left. I'm thinking, however, of producing some Air Transport units, to deploy parachute divisions fast or resupply trapped/out of supplies units. Land Forts is the last chance I have, even though I agree maybe it's too late for these forts, but what the hell, it's that or nothing.

2, if I understand your question corrently, select one of your corps and click on the button that is next to the "deatch/attach" arrow, that will create a Army and so on. You have to start from the bottom.

3. Nationaly unity is already at a good value in the 1944 scenario, however constant bombings will lower it over time, especially in this scenario. Go to intelligence tab and set the "Raise National Unity" to the highest level and also the number of spies in your country. That will raise the national unity slowly, also check your Politics tab, see if some of your ministers lower the National Unity as one of their values (Not sure if a minister has such value though) AND see what is lowering your NU, bombings, lack of friendly units in your territory or convoy raiding. If you are getting bombed, check your main cities, get a few Interceptor Squadrons to do "Interception" missions over the objetive itself OR an area in particular (You can, with advanced airplanes, cover pretty much the entire of Germany if you know how to use the Missions window). They will intercept any hostile airplane in that specific area, intercepting bombers = good things to make propaganda of = raising NU. Interceptions is a very good mission type, they will only take off when they have to and also saves fuel.

If it's convoy raiding, go to Production and set the convoys to manual, see where they are being attacked and either cancel that route, deal with it (You have to, as Japan the only way to fight convoy raiding is to produce more convoys :/) or try to hunt the Submarines or whatever they use to raid your ships, not recommended as Germany, but you won't have much trouble with convoy raiding here, try not to set routes from, for example, Konigsberg -> Benghazi, because they will go trough a shitload of Allied territory and are easy targets for their ships.

If it's that "No allies fighting in our territory", never had that one, ever, if you do, yell at them for incompetence, I guess.

[Erwin]

I never really understood the supply situation in Hearts of Iron 3 and so far it destroys my mood after a while. I have too many areas with good logistical infrastructure but supply are not getting through. I made up anti-partisan units that's not the cause as well. So most of my units are not moving after a while. 

[Dukat]

The routing of the convoys was the biggest problem in early HoI 3 versions. I'm not even sure if you can cancel routes. You could not in HoI 2. It started sending ships again when considered necessary on its own.

When I played Netherlands in HoI 3, my capital was transfered to Asia in 1940, when the germans took Amsterdam, and when dutch marines re-took Amsterdam in 1945, all my goods and raw materials and oil was still there, and my small convoy fleet started shipping everything to Asia, because my capital was still in Asia. And thus my whole economy blew up while my troops starved to death on lonely pacific islands.

[PanzerKnacker]

D'oh! I never felt like screenshotting the game, but I will replay this scenario where I invaded England through Blackpool because it's simply too awesome. Not to mention it's 1947 and I'm still not at war with the Comintern.

[Knitschi]

@Erwin

Make sure to remove troops from undersupplied provinces. When you are in supply map mode you can see how many troops a province can supply. Make sure you are not above the limit. Your troops will be almost useless if they are not properly supplied and fewer divisions that are supplied will fight better.

I like the hoi 3 supply system, because it makes amphibious landings much harder. It is easy to stage a landing, but it is hard to supply all your troops afterwards and you need to make sure that you have enough sea ports under your control. Invading north america is much more fun with this.

In the "normal" land war undersupplied troops mostly occur when you have a huge army marching through an area with low infrastructure, like in ethiopia with the italians or in rusia with the germans.

The supply system limits the maximal number of divisions  that you can put in a single province so no more 200 infantry divisions holding Gibraltar and similar situations that occured in hoi 2.

[Torenico]

Critical situation for the Army Group North:

3. Panzerarmee transferred to Heeresgruppe Mitte, Heeresgruppe Nord losses strenght.

18. Armee covering southern flank, VI. SS-Korps tasked with the defense of Kaunas, flanked south by the I. Armeekorps. Small counterattack north of Kaunas will take place shortly, enemy stopped along the river Neman, several Soviet assaults stopped. The Luftwaffe is here, 5 Interceptor Squadrons forming the II. and X. Fliegerkorps stationed in Memel and Konigsberg, Soviet bombers will now face opposition on their daily attacks on my troops.

Steiner's III. SS-Panzerkorps under Skorzeny will be sent south of Kaunas to prepare for a counterattack and to stop the Soviets before Prussia.

I'm planning a general retreat from Lithuania, first by slowly pulling back the best units to the port of Riga, there they will embark on Ostsee-Geschwader's transport ships and sent south to Memel, these troops will form a defense around Kaunas. Meanwhile, Steiner's group and the 16. Armee will start pulling back without serious engagements, just delay actions. Unfortunately I will also have to concede Memel to the Russians.

The idea is to form a defensive line along the Neman, at the gates of Prussia, while some units in very bad shape will regain strenght at Konigsberg. This will also make Heeresgruppe Nord front shorter, allowing me to concentrate more troops in a smaller area, while weakening it by sending some of it's units to Heeresgruppe Mitte, where the most brutal and decisive fights will take place.

The Kriegsmarine will also be active for this operation, I'm planning to create a fleet led by Germany's last remaining Battleship, the Tirpitz with other vessels such as the old Schleswig-Holstein, Schlesien and the cruisers Admiral Scheer and Prinz Eugen, escorted by several destroyers. This fleet will support and escort the Ostsee-Geschwader attempts to evacuate units from Riga but also will provide support with heavy firepower to any unit fighting along the coastline.

[Erwin]

@Knitschi

Yeah I'm perfectly aware of that Supply Map.

However when I try to improve the situation I always fail. I boost up infrastructure, post Anti-Partisan units around so I don't get much of that. I create new convoys to boost up Supply but no. Situation is not improving. After a while my forces just lose their strength an cannot regain, they cannot move because there is no fuel(I have plenty) so it becomes frustrating after awhile. I'm a big Darkest Hour and old series fan but so far I cannot play this game because of this.

[Hjaldrgud]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1bvX2-XrAQ&hd=1

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

FOR FUCK SAKE! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! SHITSHUIT YEAH!

HEARTS OF IRON 44444444444444444!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahhh.

Anyone else as hyped as me?

[ajappat]

Anyone else as hyped as me?

No 

I still like HoI 2 more than 3, so I gues we will see...

[VonMudra]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1bvX2-XrAQ&hd=1

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

FOR FUCK SAKE! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! SHITSHUIT YEAH!

HEARTS OF IRON 44444444444444444!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahhh.

Anyone else as hyped as me?

But...what about victoria 3?

[Kalkalash]

I'm guessing Victoria 3 will be next. Hearts of Iron 3 is the oldest 'previous generation' game.

[Korsakov829]

East vs. West will come before HoI4 I imagine.

[Kalkalash]

They are turning East vs West into an open beta game where you pay what you want for the game. So an actual proper release isn't guaranteed.

[Torenico]

I'd love to see what new stuff they can bring to HoI IV, I hope they incorporate elements from East vs West, such as ship customization and for gods sake, ground forces should be accurate!, I hated it when Tiger brigades had a T-35 as their unit photo, or Jagdtigers had M36 Jackson!. Or things like armament, for example, Maus had "Main Gun: No", so does the Yamato-Class SHBattleship what the fuck?, small things but important for me.

Anyways, picked up my 1944 scenario as Germany again, game was getting a bit laggy and stressful, you will see why.

A large portion of Army Group center was about to be cut off from the rest of the Army, after losing Minsk due to a massive Soviet offensive, a large number of men in +30 Divisions of all kinds found themselves almost completely surrounded. The situation was pretty desperate, the Soviets pushed down from the north, trying to seize a single province which kept the supply lines open. I, of course, ordered a full retreat from the almost-encircled units, the defensive operation started on 15 May, and while the situation is much better now, on 29 May, some units are still retreating from the danger zone, but their rearguard is heavily defended. This was pretty intense, with me pausing the game over and over to think.



The situation for Army Group North is not very good either, several Soviet assaults north of Kaunas have driven back several German divisions. After several unsuccessfull counterattacks, I pulled back huge amounts of troops to Riga and evacuated them by sea, they arrived to Memel in order to prepare another defensive line. Rommel's southern flank and Busch northen flank is under threat of a masssive Soviet assault, 96km north of Brest-Litovsk is the shattered III. SS-Panzerkorps, a breaktrough on this small area will cause a flood of Soviet divisions right by Mitte's rearguard, two Soviet pincers could deliver a deadly strike, one going straight for the city of Brest-Litovsk, the other going north directly towards Konigsberg, none of them could be stopped.



Meanwhile in the Balkans, I must end things here. I've prepared troops for a decisive attack on Allied positions. The attack is very simple, cut the Allied armies in two. My large Balkans offensive was stalled 73km from my main target, Tirana, so it all ended up on this stalemate, with Bulgarian units launching several successful attacks. I will concentrate my main efforts on a 86km long front, it is relatively well defended, but I will attack with brutality. Encircling and destroying the Allied armies gathered around Zagreb will relieve several of my divisions for a last push towards Tirana, effectively destroying all Allied units in the region and allowing me to reinforce critical fronts of the Eastern Front, or send these men to end the Allied armies in Italy once and for all.

[Fuchs]

So.. What's the war goals, general? Hold out 'till a ceasefire?