Hearts of Iron

[Safe-Keeper]

OK, so I got a very good impression of Victoria, even though I never really got into it, and now I've tried recently purchased Hearts of Iron. So after doing my best with the tutorial, or rather, before doing my best with the tutorial, I jumped into the '36-'46 campaign as Norway (who else) and...

I don't get it.

Namely, I don't understand how convoys, industry and the World Market works. OK, so I've understood that if I make a convoy, I can ship resources out of my country to some other country. Goody for them, but... what's in it for me:-??

And the World Market - OK, so I think I've understood that I can trade so and so many resources for so and so many resources every day. What I don't get is what all those other offers are doing there if I can't accept them (are they deals other countries have with one another?), why some of them are red, and why I can't accept them. The manual also says I will be notified if someone accepts my deals, but apparently they're just accepted and activated instantly. Who the Heck I'm trading with, I have no idea.

I also read a review which says that the AI is horrible and that AI countries will 'fall apart' after a short time. Is this true? I was gearing up to repel a full-fledged German Weserubüng, and I'd be very disappointed if those snobby Germans don't feel I'm worthy of their attention.

So... if I play single-player only, is this game and/or its sequel worth pursuing?

[kentcol]

Safe, go to the HOI forums at the Paradox website. You'll find all the answers you need and the guys are very helpful. There's also a HOI page on WIKI that is helpful.

[FAdmiral]

Go here and read all the forum posts on your game:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=302

BTW, Victoria Revolutions will convert into HOI2doomsday which is
a MUCH better game than the older HOI original....

JIM

[Egan]

Of particular interest - Seeing as we are talkling about this on a naval sim forum, :) - is Blue Emu's highly informative thread Are submarines worthless? (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264824) which explains how to use U-boats in a way that works very effectively.

This was written for HOI2, mind you, so I don't know how much of it is relevant to the first game. If you are still playing the first one I would advise an upgrade to the sequel with it's 'Doomsday' expansion. it adds lots of little things to the game. It is one of my favourites.

[FAdmiral]

In HOI1, the subs were VERY effective, a little too much so. In HOI2, they
dumbed them down quite a bit making them hardly worth building. Doomsday
flavored them up slightly so that the subs could perform as intended....

JIM

[Egan]

The subs are great in Doomsday. The strategy outlined in the thread I linked to works well and I would think the basic mechanics of it are probably applicable to any version of the game.

However, It is a strategy you have to deliberately decide on from quite early on, I think, in order to have the sort of numbers of boats you need to be successful. I' ve tried it once or twice with reasonable results but I think there are probaly better strategies available if you are attempting to defeat Britain. I haven't tried it against Japan So I can't comment on that.