I nuked my computer a few months ago and do not have it installed, so I may mis-speak here. Been like 6 months, and I am running on memory.

I believe in the diplomacy tab, there is a threat modifier between countries.

It is based on threat from invasion. So proximity (Norway is much more influenced by Germany taking Austria than America would be)

Military size. Italy is cute with its baby army, and produces way less threat than Germany would (for norway at least [proximity]. The French and Brits feel way different, with thier lands in Africa under threat) But it keeps a minimal defense force on the French border at home, and that is pretty much it.

France is threatened by italy, but not as much as Poland would be threatened by Germany. Due to troop counts, front positions, numbers, alignment differences. etc,.

Russia likes to invade Sweden, more threat for you. This pushes you, like it or not into allied arms, not even counting spy actions, which done right, can make funny results. (The computer never does it right)
(I did play a Nazi Sweden game once, broke my butt for 3 years to turn myself Nazi, then got invaded by Norway and lost. Germany just shrugged, and went back to playing with Stalin :har:)

Behind alot of this is scripted events. As long as requirements are met, they can trigger. Usually with a MMTH (mean months to happen, pretty much how the game files defines the probability)

I suck at explaining things sometimes, I can understand if this post comes across as scatter-brained

Leadership is different, that affects the effectiveness of your armies, and what you can do diplomatically,research etc
I nuked my computer a few months ago and do not have it installed, so I may mis-speak here. Been like 6 months, and I am running on memory.

I believe in the diplomacy tab, there is a threat modifier between countries.

It is based on threat from invasion. So proximity (Norway is much more influenced by Germany taking Austria than America would be)

Military size. Italy is cute with its baby army, and produces way less threat than Germany would (for norway at least [proximity]. The French and Brits feel way different, with thier lands in Africa under threat) But it keeps a minimal defense force on the French border at home, and that is pretty much it.

France is threatened by italy, but not as much as Poland would be threatened by Germany. Due to troop counts, front positions, numbers, alignment differences. etc,.

Russia likes to invade Sweden, more threat for you. This pushes you, like it or not into allied arms, not even counting spy actions, which done right, can make funny results. (The computer never does it right)
(I did play a Nazi Sweden game once, broke my butt for 3 years to turn myself Nazi, then got invaded by Norway and lost. Germany just shrugged, and went back to playing with Stalin :har:)

Behind alot of this is scripted events. (Anchluss, Pearl Harbor, Winter War, Sudetenland annexation)) As long as requirements are met, they can trigger. Usually with a MMTH (mean months to happen, pretty much how the game files defines the probability)

edit: Sorry I am not more sure. I honestly feel I suck at this game, considering I could never quite get all the way across Russia, as Germany, starting in '36. Even with an army of 7 million (on one front). I commend you for the challenge, but it will not be easy. Norway IMHO is not a good starter country.

It could be dull, and the deck is stacked against you if you want to play agressor.

You use your leadership points to produce spies and as soopaman says how you spread the points can also affect your armies effectiveness (through officers),how many diplomats you produce and research.
Can be a tricky balancing act with a small pool of leadership points.

With Finland having fallen to the Nazis, northern Norway is under invasion from...

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...9-13_00001.jpg

...the Italians?!
:rotfl2:

Luckily their advance was halted completely by a lack of infrastructure. Morale: if you want to stop an invasion, simply don't build any roads:O:.

Pfft, you should've seen the first few versions of Hearts of Iron 3, where Finland would regularly invade Italy...

It's payack time, apparently.

Yes, those Swedish developers somehow got leaked information of our secret plans and implemented them in that "game" of theirs. Then we paid them a visit and after a few of them had leaked enough, they agreed that they hadn't seen or heard anything. And neither have you, by the way. This post doesn't exist. Carry on. :cool:

A little more seriously speaking (and totally not trying to distract your mind, which should have just been wiped blank by that unexplained flash of blue light, citizen): I've been interested in the HoI series for a while, but their timeframe has always felt very short compared to other Paradox games. How is the in-game time handled in them and how many game hours would you estimate for an average grand campaign? A year in most other Paradox titles would be a short time and pass quickly, but I suppose in HoI games it's different, since the timeframe is shorter? Or are they shorter and more intensive games by definition?

Quite easy to answer: the days are subdivided into hours, so this gives you 24x the "time units".
This makes battle times much more realistic than in EU3, where a battle in the open can last for weeks, can't think of any non-siege battles that lasted this long during that era.
Grand Campaign times are always difficult to calculate. If you would only focus on diplomacy and research, I'd say it would be significantly shorter, however who would do so in a WW2 game. Overall my estimation is that the length of an avarage game in HoI is comparible to the other grand strategy titles.
For HoI2 - which I still find a great game, to me it's much more accessible than its successor- there are also some expansions that extend the timeline into the cold war era. You might want to check out Darkest Hour for a timeline that covers 50 years - haven't played the latter, so I can't say anything about its quality.

There are also alot of mods!

Yeah, Safe-Keeper. Italy is a turd.

I remember a protracted 6 month campaign where I repeatedly nuked, and bombed Britain, followed by a mass paratrooper invasion, and landing Tiger tanks in Kent.

I lost alot of ships, men, tanks, and planes. My front with Russia suffered. But I did not want to give America a launching point into France.

What happened you ask?

After a real slobberknocker of a brawl I pacified the Brits.

So they surrendered to Italy, who ad no more than 2k troops in country. Compared to my 70-100k I broke my ass land there.

Meaning Italy got Britain from my blood sweat and tears. (Major flaw IMHO)

So I cancelled my Balkan invasion, Let the Greeks and Russians rape them.

My Wermacht was, for some reason, too busy to help that pig Mussolini.

Where did I end up in that game?

Feeding my dog Blondi a cyanide pill to test it.:D Poor doggy.

Hmm, fascinating. It seems my greatest concern is not as bad as I thought. :hmmm:

Time to start putting money aside from the next few wages.

Hmm kind of late to the party but here's my two cents on what I've just read in the last page. I'll add more as I read through the threads.

Leadership affects Technology, Intelligence, Officers and Diplomacy options. Certain nations require different amounts of leadership in areas. For example. If you want to tech rush as Gerany, dump all your points into Tech. Now, you'll learn as you go, but as a rule of thumb, you want to have the max % of officers (140) however, don't dump points into it too early because depending on your laws and amount of units your building you're wasting points. Wait until right before you want to DOW to build up your officers. Mostly you want to have an idea of what you're doing (lots of diplomacy, lots of spying, etc) and then adjust your points accordingly.

As for mods, I would really recommend getting ICE, HPP or the expansion backs DI:G and DI:SS.

When I'm not busy and on a coffee buzz I'll read through the thread and try and answer more stuff in detail :)

C-C-C-Combo Breaker!

1.Serial means that once one is done, another will be built immediately. Parallel means that they will run alongside ea. other. So. a batch of 5 parallel, 3 serial runs of fighters means that 5 fighters are being built at once, 3 times over ( you will end up with 15) Paralleling is more expensive, Serials are cheaper but take longer.

2. The only way to decrase a countries neutrality is through events and spies.

3. Sadly no :(

Also, abou practicals. The more research you do on say infantry, the faster and cheaper theyll be. The more you build them, the faster and cheaper theyll be. Works for basically every unit.

4. By Mobilizing your army in the politics tab. This is expensive and useless in peace-time. If you are at war its done automatically.

5. Nope, you cannot "trade" resources (heavy water, horses, etc) All nations in your faction gain access to them though.

6. Nukes/V2s are not worth it at this point. Nukes maybe if you can get them, but even still the AI will not change its tactics if you nuke it or not

7. Engineers for fortress busting, River crossing. Mostly I keep them attached to my Panzer Corps HQs and release them as necessary.

8. Agreed, Log bomb their rear, ground attack them and starve them out.

9. Planes are stupid. They will grind themselves out and leave you a fuel tab. Set them to intercept only. This way they aren't always flying.

10. That's a very fuel hungry division and expensive. Mot are usually better if in developped areas.

11. Depending on how you use them. If you para their capital its gamey, but to use them "right" i.e somewhat historically yet not stupidly, is difficult as they're very situational.

12. agreed.

13. I won't comment on diplomatic strategies, but always. ALWAYS. have 10 spies at home on counter-espionage

Factories do need resourcse to run. But also, depending on your laws they run at different levels. You can have a total of 200 IC (Cough USA...) but only have access to 50 unless your laws are set right.

Edit: If theres anything I missed, just let me know.

Thank you for your feedback! Only one question:

I'm sorry, but are you absolutely sure of that? My IC's keep bouncing back and forth between 10-ish and 24-ish, and I'm sure as heck not doing continouous switching of laws or policies ;) .

Saw that the Darkest Hour was cheap enough even for my cheapskate budget and got it. Boy, am I confused now. :o

In a good way, I might add.

Hmm if it keeps bouncing (hour to hour or day to day) then it's most likely your resources. How many do you have of each?