Hi all,

So i am new to this and first want to say hi. I did the whole tutorial carefully. After the tutorial i started a game and took japan as my first nation to play with. I attacked the Shanxi (whomever they may be? ), i had a pretty hard time, i used a couple of bombers, positioned my HQ unit properly and attacked with all i got. But at the moment i thought... shall i just retreat and get more forces they kinda gave up and offered a peace treaty for the 2 provinces i fought thoughly for +3 or 4 more. I accepted the offer graciously .

But this game seems realy deep but i hope to learn this a bit quicker with your help. Any links to good beginners faq's and strategie guides would be realy helpfull.

1)So i started producing some tanks but already researched a better one, so whats best? Leave them producing the old one or change them to the new version?

2)I am producing pretty mutch now but i am able to keep my money stable. Though supplies are suffering from it (now even half of it i can get). How bad is this? Will my troops starve to dead? Or just perform less in battle?

3)These units i can deploy after they are build, i can deploy them to 4 different (generals?). Why only these 4? Can i make a deployment base somewhere else and how? Or can i move these (generals?) to differen locations, but what if they die then?.... hmm i know i'm a bit vague... but the deployment gameplay is as well

4)Whats with these missions with the technology tab that the tutorial talks about? I don't get that at all. I need to unlock event/missions for it? How?

5)How can i see if i need more factories? Or in other words how do i increase my production output?

6)Like i said i conquered a little land but it does not give me mutch resources, is that becaus there is still some partisan activity? How do i get rid of that?

Tx!

Right well, let me start by saying it's best if you change the AI settings (Before you start a game, go to options) to easy difficulty and weakling aggressiveness.
Next, it's best to start as a country with a high IC (Industrial capacity), like Germany or the USA.

1. When those tanks have been completed, they will be automatically upgraded to the new ones, if you have enough IC donated to the "Upgrades" slider.
2. when your supply levels reach 0, you will most likely loose your battles, Troops can only fight when they have supplies. Thus, it is a good offensive manoeuvre to encircle enemy divisions, wait for their supplies to run down and they will be easy to destroy. If you pin them down to the sea, you need some naval units to attack the resupply convoys.
If you find yourself unable to produce enough supplies, then you need to trade with other nations, but it's not free, you need something to trade for, and a friendly nation to trade with.
3. I personally never deploy units to other units. I always deploy them to provinces, and you can only deploy them to your national provinces. as Japan, you will need to transport them to wherever.
Before I go on any further, I must ask, do you have Hearts of Iron 1 or 2? I have 2, so my help will not be as useful if you have 1.

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Thanks for helping out. i have HoI 2: Doomsday.

2)Hmm i realy have no resources to put my upgrade slider up. But i recently pumped out some heavy tanks, together with some light tanks and infantry i try to take over whole Shanxi. After that i try to take nationalist china. They are realy big but my spies say they probably only have 1 tank division so that must be a piece of cake then .

7)A realy importand question here, otherwise i'm kinda stuck. I want to form (bigger groups) by putting more units under a general. How would i do this? I can split groups but it seems there is no way to combine them again. I know some generals can command more troops then others.

8)If it's possible to combine units whats best: 1, put all my tanks under panzer generals and my infantry under infantry generals. or 2, combine tanks and infantry to defend my tanks properly.

Well I can answer 7. What is your problem exactly? Is it that you keep giving the generals too much to command, or is it that you can't find the merge button? If it is the first one, click on the portrait of the general, and promote him, although his skill will decrease.

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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

3 (Continued). If you deploy your troops into the same provence as another unit, you can merge the two units. If they are not moving or engaged in any combat. It is possible to put as many units as you want under one general, but it is not advisable. Major Generals should only have one division under their command, Lieutenant Generals three, Generals nine and Field Marshalls twelve. You can promote generals, but it costs skill. Never promote your generals too much, and try to keep their skill at three or above.
4. I don't know what you mean by missions, researching just makes your nation more technologically advanced.
5. In the top right hand corner you will see a series of three numbers (e.g. 1:2:3). The number on the far right (3 in my example) is your base IC. This is the amount of factories you have in your country. The middle number is your actual IC. This is your industrial capacity after it has been modified (By research, ministers, dissent etc etc). The left hand number is your wasted IC. This is the amount of IC that is going to waste, not being used to produce anything or upgrade your units.
Basically, the higher the actual and base IC is, the more powerful your country is. I have a Germany campaign where my actual is over 500.
6. Some poor countries, like Shanxi, have very little resources anyway. However, in the options menu (Before you start a game), change the "Full IC takeover". Although I think that is only available in Armageddon I'm not sure.

2. Be careful with China. It is HUGE! You will need at least 100 infantry divisions to take it over, a few tank divisions wont be able to do it.
7. I have already covered this, but if you drag a box around the divisions (Inactive and in the same provence), then pres the merge button they will combine.
8. If you create groups of three tank division under LT Generals, they can work independently, but be sure to not overextend them. Combining them with infantry neutralises their greatest asset; speed. Put them in a different group to infantry, but when attacking be sure to click the "synchronise arrival" button. That way all the units arrive at the same time. (I once watched in horror as my three panzer divisions with 80 experience where completely destroyed by the Russians, I over extended them!).
All your forces must work together. Infantry must support the tanks and vice versa. But don't put them in the same army, then if an opportunity to encircle 30 divisions comes up, your tanks will be able to plug the gap.

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The is actually quite a diffucilt game to master, both form the military, diplomatic and econonomical side. You need to be able to balance all three at once, balancing Technological advances, with the upgrades and so on.

The more advanced your units the more punishment they can both do and recieve before they have to retreat from the battle. The more advanced you military doctrines the more the battles are effected, such as the time the units can stay engaged, the amount of defence and attack amplifers, from AA, soft and hard target amplifers all the way to entrenced and basic movment bonuses which gives your units more chance of either encircling, breaking through, assualitng and so on. These are things you need to juggle together.

I ussually play as Germany since they have a good IC and are a waring country which is after all what you want. I often spend the first years (starting from 1936) just building factoryies to increase the IC output meaning you can build more of everthing. Upgrade tanks, and mechanized units, meaning you can move faster then the infantry and early tank units, giving you the blitzkreig effect. Also always upgrade your infantry units and your production abilities to speed up your deployment of your units.

However it al depends on your tactic and strategies. You might favour spped over numbers, of aircraft over tanks, that is something you will have to figure out.

The Generals are also more harder to understand then they look. For example many of the Genearls can only command a certain amount of units without suffereing stacking issues (which is very bad, never EVER do this), they also have special abilities, such as Rommel being better with the tanks meaning he gives bonuses whenever he uese tanks, some are mounteers others are winter specialist, it says under their details. There are so many other bonuses and things that effect the General and his units in a battle but they are do many to mention and many are hard to understand, I don't get half of them. lol

Also with the Generals, do not promote them until they are ready. One commander who can command one division may be great at that but not so good at commanding 9. Wait until their skill is high enough.

Planes, tanks all important, upgrades and attachments for your units, also important. Remember to mix up your units, for example. When you send an army of tanks against infantry you are not necessarly going to win, because if they are equipped to engage you, you will lose especially if you engange them in mountain areas. So mix it up be sure to send infantry with your tanks. I chose calavary units to acoompany my tanks until I reserach and deploy motorized then later mechanized units.

Watch the terrain, Tanks, bad in snow, mud, hills, mountains, river crossings, amphibious assualts, jungles, infantry depends on the units, marines better in water ares, mountain troops better in the mountains and so on.

I could go on forever.

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Basic rule, use your infantry to anchor the enemy forces to a set point and the tanks and mobile infantry to sweep behind and encircle them, also combined with aircraft, ah the Blitzkrieg effect. Then use more infantry to plug the holes that the tanks left so they do not get cut off from there supples.

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I might retype this to answer you specific questions.

New upgrades are better but take more time to build and more resources to build and more to upkeep them. If you have the resources and the IC then build the upgrades ones, they do more in damage and can receive more damage until they have to pull back.


Without supplies some of your armies might be disbanded to upkeep the remaining ones, so yes this is bad. Money has to be made either by selling/trading some of your resources to another nation or by moving the slider on the consumer goods, this makes money by making things in your factories and selling it to your own people but it sacrifices your IC's.



You can only deploy new units to your natural providence's (ones you controled at the start of the game, or nations that have a direct land attachment to yours that have been annexed by you. The generals have to be in these areas. You can deploy the units by themselves with no immediate attached generals, and one will be assigned to them randomly or you can do it yourself. General's can be cnaged and reassigned from front to anotehr one safe in the rear.



There are no 'missions' in this game, there are events that happen in the game that depends on your nation, the time and date, your technolgoical advances, and your previous deicsion with these events.



That depends on whether your are happy with our IC count., which you never should be. The larger the army gets the more factories that are needed to produce the supplies to keep them going. Also the more countries you take over and control the more factories you capture form the enemy which gets added to your IC over time. But by simply right clicking on one of your providence's and clicking build factory it automatically addse it to your produtcion que, this in turn assignes 5 more of your IC's to building factory, and most tank around a year to build (it seems like a lot, but in the futire you will be glad you did. I had Germany's up to 500 by 1944.)



The best way is to train Garrision troops and add attachments of military police to them this effects around 30% of the partisan activity. By placing them in a singel area they affect all the surrounding and attached areas, not by 30% but by around 10% it depends on the units so you don't need to put them in every area, you leave some and these garrision units will cover them, if of course they are deployed right( do not us normal infantry or tanks for this. As you take over more areas, you will need more of these units, A lot more.


Partisans are bad for you supply of supplies to your forward units and they effect your units in many ways, so it is best to avoid them doing this. It can be down as stated above. at the top right of the screen there is a picture of a truck, hold the mouse over that and it shows where all your ICs are going, the % of partisan activity simulats blown up bridges, trains and destoryed convoyies. Paritsans also effect the output of resources from an area, and also sl the movement of all your troops through those areas.


Any other questions feel free to ask as I have the manual right in fron to f me, if I don't know the answer.


Tx![/quote]

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You will need to make sure that your entire front is enclosed and every providence connected to the enemies has an opposing army, this way dons't leave holes in your line. Your lack of resources or more likely your IC's will be a constant issue, you never seem to have enough to build it all, especially when the retraining and replacement for the losses suffered in battles as well as the upgrades, this means you need more factories but htey tank IC's and time.




Your Generals can command units based on their skill, you can promote them but this sacrifices their EXP which they may have gained being a lower rank, think of it as them mastering their level and amount of men only to be given more and not knowing what to do, so it is better to let the computer descide to promote them, but sometimes it is needed. I generally do not let the skills go under 3 if I have to manually promote them. As I said before never EVER overstack a General there are so many issues and problems which effect your units and it is bad for the battle and you will probably lose.



If you have more then one general in a battle engageing from the same area into the same are, then the highest ranking General will lead the attack, but he has the be able to command every division within the attack, so if you have 6 Divisions and a commander that can only command 3, then you are over stacked and that is VERY BAD. To avoid this you can get a HQ unit which helps with the deployment of the units which also may help your general with the overstacking penalty and may even remove it, ot attack from two different areas, so each commander is only commadning his men in support of the other general in the other area. This eliminates the overstacking penility and also gives to an advantage of attacking from two sides in the battle window.


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I explained this a little earlier, so I have repasted and edit it here.
To add to this, mobile infantry is better, although Joes suggestion of same time arrival is good, you lose the ability of tank, which is speed, so use Calvary, motorised or mechanized infantry with your tanks under the same general to keep the speed going.

as before

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I use synchronised arrival until it is clear I can encircle troops with my tanks, I'm terrified of loosing them.
Using this tactic is good in Italy, it's so thin. I was attacking from the north as Germany, (The Italians outnumbered me, they had 105 divisions me around 70), but I managed to slowly advance with my infant until my panzers could encircle 40 Italian divisions around Rome using Cassino and Anzio, thankfully only defended by a single militia division.

When my LT Generals commanding my Panzerarmees of three tank divisions reach skill 6 (Does not take long lol), I promote them to Generals so I can add 2 Panzergrenadier (Mechanised) divisions at least, sometimes more. Then they can be self-sufficient.

The downside to this is the amount of fuel you consume is huge, I am buying almost all the Soviet Union's oil at the moment, thankfully we are on good terms!


Oh, and using the manual? Pfft, this is all coming from memory!

And Paratroopers are great for supporting attacks, just remember to back them up and get to them ASAP before they are destroyed. The transports must be used to air supply them or they will be cut off.

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One question myself, i am not exactly a pro at this either.

I have a problem with properly deploying the paratroopers. The troopers are loaded on transports in Plymouth, i.e., and I can only airborne assault Cherbourg. I can airsupply the other provinces in Normandy, so range isn't the issue. I have thought of weather, but that isn't the case either? What limits my para operations?

Being a lover of the airborne idea, I built quite a few airborne divisions my first game, but i couldn't drop them from the sky!! Help me please.

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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

To tell you the truth, I don't understand this either.

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[quote=Joe;349721]When I invaded Russia as the Germans, I used this tactic and just ran through there lines and many so many divisions surrender sometimes 30 divisions at a time, and this happened mulitple times. I always was amazed by the sheer weight of numbers and divisions they have at their disposal.



No, a Field MArshal with a skill of 9 and an exp of 99 controlling a panzer corp. lol.



Absolutely




What I wrote earlier was by memory, I meant I have the manual if there is a question I can't answer. I never read the manual for ages, but one day I grabbed it and read it the whole way though and I was amazed of its depth.

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The only reason I can think of regarding the annoying paratroopers is the weather. I use them quite a bit, and there are several techs that improve the efficiency, you should have a go at researching them.
Oh, and I think the level of the airbase might be a factor. For example, I tend to bomb enemy airfields so much that when I come to use them I can't.

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Well I am uploading several screenshots (64 to be exact) that should be able to help.

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1. Tech Research

As you can see, one of my tech teams has finished a tech and is idle.


Advanced decryption devices will allow me to achieve better knowlage of the enemy troops, and is a worthy research, and is suitable for Konrad Zuse. When researching, look at the team's skill and always try to pick one with a greater skill number than the numbers in the research window. This tech has skill levels of 8, and Zuse is only 7. However, the historical date is 2 years beforehand so this should be finished in no time.


Press start project and away you go!


Remember, always research upgrades for your infantry! 50 divisions of infantry '39 will be useless against 25 divisions of infantry '45! And remember to allocate as much IC as you can to upgrades!


Always upgrade you doctrines too! These greatly affect your battles!




NEXT TIME: Trades with other nations

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I tried to give you spme rep but I cant, so a salute will have to do, excellent Joe

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Well, once in the PTO, I had an airfield in Clark Field, never changed hands or was attacked. I had planned an amphibious invasion on Hainan, and wanted to drop a division there. No weather, perfect airfield. No dice.

However, I don't exactly know what you mean when you talk about the airborne techs, I can't find them, besides the '39, '41, '43, and so on.

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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

Joe you are making me want ot play this game again. lol

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SOAR,

The "airborne techs" are located in the "Air doctrine" tab. I don't have the time now but I will show you with a screenshot soon, but I think the "Battlefield Interdiction" doctrine gives you the ability to launch airborne assaults.

Thanks for the salutes people!

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oh thanks lol, my greatest weakness is my inability to use effective air power in HoI, and often I leave my airfields way behind my ground troops before I realize that I am not using any air units. As a result, i also leave my air doctrine usually untouched until the middle of a war, when I realize, my air units are dying...

It just seems to me the air power in HoI maybe isn't all what it might have been in WW2. Idk, could be I had a misconception about real air effectiveness, but even when I direct almost six or seven bombardment squadrons to missions, i see no tangible effects on the ground.

Airborne, however, is one of my loves, and now I may know how to exploit it. Thanks

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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

Don't underestimate the importance or effectiveness of the Air powers in HOI, they can both cripple your industry and certainly destroy all the infrasture stopping the movement of the enemy troops. I


I however only really use the interdiction missions, this causes the enemies that they engage to lose 'organization' allowing my troops to push forward faster without a lengthy battle without taking all of my organization.


I have found that the 'Ground Support' missions work best while combined with an armored assault, while the missions that destroy the infrastructure (I cant remember the name) are best used when you are not going to attack, because yes it does stop the enemy moving, but it also stops you from attacking quickly through those areas.


The Air superiority missions are also crucial with the fighters for stopping the enemy from damaging your forces, I have found in this it is best to mix up the fighter units, interceptors (in case they meet any bombers, and fighters to take on the enemy fighter.).


Remember to also attach a fighter squadron to the bombers for protection.


I do however have a noobie question.
Is it possible to make larger flights with more then four squadrons?

I click the merge button but nothing happens, is that supposed to happen?

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No, air units can only have four squadrons in them no matter what.

2. TRADE

As you can see, my production of rare materials is quite low.


To trade, click the diplomacy window...


All the nations are in the "All" tab, allied nations (U.K. and allies) in the "allied " tab, Commitern (Soviet Union and Allies) in the "Commitern" tab, and Axis (Germany and allies) in the "axis tab.
Africa, Asia, Euope and America (North+South are included in this) contain the nations geographically in those continents.

I want to trade with the Soviet Union, so I need to find them.


Click "Offer trade agreement" and se the resources you want to trade. Moving the slide left is what you want them to give you, moving it right is what you will give them. The number at the bottom is the probablity the other country will accept.

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Thanks Joe.

Nice tutorial you got going, I hope you will teach me a thing or two.

With the trade don't forget to continually trade blueprints with your allies, but not the ones you plan to make war on.

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Anyone here have HOI II Doomsday Armageddon v1.2 VBLV?

Download XFire if you do and add PanzerPenguin and message me. Repulse and I have a game going and would love for more to join.

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