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I've been watching some gameplay videos of Hearts of Iron IV, and...wow! This might be the only game in the past 10 years that I decide to buy on release, bugs and all. It's just...blowing me away.
Civ has always been a fun series, but I have to admit that this outclasses the most recent iterations of Civ (and even maybe my beloved Civ4) in a couple of key areas:
*Historical detail
*Logistics
*Tactical combat
*Freedom to decide your own level of macro- and micro-management
*Diplomacy
The user-interface is complicated as hell, but there might not be a way around that considering the complex game mechanics.
Who else is pumped about this?
June 8th, 2016, 03:09
(This post was last modified: June 8th, 2016, 03:10 by AdrienIer.)
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As I said in the game bargains thread there was a -15% offer on Gamesplanet this weekend, and I took it. I have to say that I am NOT disappointed. There's a reasonably complex economy to develop, and choices to make pretty much all the time (ex : choices between producint more infantry and starting a new production line of those shiny tanks you just unlocked)
On the other hand, I had a hard time beating up France as Germany, and am having a hard time beating up Greece (actually historical though). In some ways the AI is better than the actual generals from WW2 (France landed near Bremen instead of just sitting behind Maginot when I hadn't finished off Poland), but it's still annoying sometimes. My Italian allies had 100 divisions on the French frontier but didn't attack for a LONG time, which may have cost me a few months. They were also defeated by the Greek army before I finished off Yugoslavia. 
Overall this is a fun game to play. I think it will be super fun to play in MP, I look forward to do an Italy/Germany game or a France/UK game to get around the AI's worst moments. Or even a full blown Japan/US/France/UK/USSR/Germany/Italy game, but let's not get carried away.
June 8th, 2016, 14:17
(This post was last modified: June 8th, 2016, 14:17 by TheHumanHydra.)
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I've had a lot of fun with Hearts of Iron III. The new one won't run on my system, so I can't try it to comment. Hearts of Iron III I probably would have played just as much as Civ IV by now if I had discovered it earlier (as you know, for someone on this forum, that's saying a lot).
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I have about 10 hours into it so far, having successfully fought off the Reich as Poland and annexing most of it when the Allies finally broke Japan's back in '44. Quantity has a quality all of its own. Next playthrough will probably be trying to pull off a successful Sealion.
I'm really digging it. I still don't really get a lot of the tactical subtleties (or, hell, the tactical non-subtleties of "how to navy"), but the battle plans are just so great. I'm really looking forward to getting a better understanding of how to use them.
@AdrienIer: My heritage requires me to point out that Italy getting stomped by Greece and needing Germany to bail them out is totally historical 
(of course then the Nazis shot a ton of people and caused a famine and then we had a civil war, so Italy didn't really come off worst in that exchange except in pride)
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(June 8th, 2016, 14:40)picklepikkl Wrote: I'm really digging it. I still don't really get a lot of the tactical subtleties (or, hell, the tactical non-subtleties of "how to navy"), but the battle plans are just so great. I'm really looking forward to getting a better understanding of how to use them.
I read a lot of criticism online about HOI4 being shallow. I think that while it's probably not as in depth as HOI3 1) The people saying that are used to playing HOI3 with all the patches and expansions that made it more complex, plus a mod or two to make it even more daunting and 2) the battle plans seem a lot more complex than how they appear. Of course you can just draw a line and tell all your troops to move forward, but by digging a little into it it can do a lot of interesting things.
I was also surprised (although I shouldn't have been) to see my plans go down due to logistic problems. As the US I tried to land in Venezuela (only fascist state in the Americas) but couldn't use an invasion force of more than 10 troops due to lack of transports. I hope the Venezuelan army isn't too strong.
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Honestly my only problems so far have been a lack of feedback on my actions. I can't actually see air combat happening, nor an amount of enemy planes, so I have no idea how my planes are doing. The industry feels great for the most part, although the fact that it takes a good 2 years of multiple full production lines running at maximum efficiency to convert all your armoured division over to medium tanks seems a little ridiculous. My tank production lines keep capping out at 2-3 tanks/day, which seems like an impossibly slow amount. Other than that, the game has been great so far, certainly better than Stellaris.
Surprise! Turns out I'm a girl!
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Update on the AI :
In my USA game I wasn't really paying attention to what was happening in Europe because I thought that nothing would happen until either the USSR joined in or I sent my troops for a d-day like landing, but suddenly I noticed that half of Spain is controlled by the UK !
The UK likes to send little groups behind enemy lines to make a landing and try to get a foothold. They had attempted one in Italy that had failed soon after France fell, but their landing in Spain worked, they had reinforced it a lot and the Spanish army now had its back against the Mediterranean. One point for the AI.
I decided to send my troops to help (those who were programmed for Europe at least) and as I was convoying them to some northern Spanish port the German army came to the rescue of their Spanish allies ! They started pushing back the British until I arrived. Another point for the AI.
With 1944 approaching we're in a stalemate in Spain, and I don't want to use my Japanese army to end it. It's the best kind of mess.
Anyway I thought I'd share it with you guys
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even if i got 1000+ hours in both EU4 and CKII, I'm very uncertain if I'm able to dig into HoI... the apparent complexity in unit composition and war in general, would probably make it to difficult for me to play without dedicating more focus on the game than I like having to do.
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Having played more, I have found that while most of the game feels polished, the treaty system, especially after a major war, is kinda a mess. It is not very well explained, and it feels like the assignment of who gets what is completely boring. In addition, I found that while playing as America the game let me take 95% of czechoslovakia, Italy, and Germany, even though those powers were meant to remain independent as puppets, leaving them all with barely a state and completely crippled.
Surprise! Turns out I'm a girl!
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I found a really good thread on reddit that I intend to put into action for some Operation Sealion attempts when I return from visiting my girlfriend: https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/4...w_players/
The explanation of unit niches in particular was very helpful. Bookmarked for sure.
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