HoI tips for a newbie

[Kropotkin]

So I got an ex from a friend but I don't have any manual. At least the game seems to work somewhat better on my computer than EU, and EU II in particular, did.

So what should one do to have any decent control at all? I tested as Italy (I like to play with puny nations) and started my invasion of Abbessina and that worked pretty OK. But after that I couldn't get the economy to work. I tried to get some from the world market but I couldn't get it to work and my convoys wheren't soing much good. I tried to build out my industrial output but it took a long while and before I got something from that my industrial capacity sort of collaped on me.... And I turned off the game.

[ravagon]

To get enough oil/rubber as Italy you have to trade rather aggressively. Begin offering 2:1 and go to 3:1 or even 4:1 if you need to.
Your resource income is only about 25% or so while you're at war so finish the conquest of Ethiopia as quickly as you can and annex it. Then let your reserves build back up before attacking anybody else (ie: Albania in all probability).

[Kropotkin]

Oh yeas, Ethiopia was a piece of cake after all. I started to get a hang on the trade part but I'm not sure what the numbers mean. Is it what I want traded each day or month or is it just the ratios?

[ravagon]

The numbers are daily figures IIRC - they're normalized to your resource "income" numbers in any case.

Hence if you need an "income" of 100 rubber you may have to set up 4 trades or so (assuming you're going for the 4:1 option) - each offering a hundred coal or steel for 25 rubber. You won't get the full value until you're at peace of course, so you might want to live off your reserves until Ethiopia's taken before setting your trades up.

[Kropotkin]

Started over and testet my new knowledge. Invaded and annexed Ethiopia and Albania in six months and now I'm running a surplus in all resources. Works fine, just as long as no war comes in the way. Let us hope not and that the 1940s will be an era of peace.

[Nikolai]

How did it go? It'd be fun to see a report from a person not into every single detail in the game!

[Kropotkin]

I started over again as I installed 1.03b. But this time I'll finish a Paradox game. It has never happend before...

As I said, I started over. I got some grasp of the game by then so I couldn't say I was a total newbie. As the soviet union I'm doing pretty OK. In 1944 I've annexed or occupied Hungary, balticum, Norway, Germany, China, Siam, India and Afghanistan. Puppeded Rumania, Italy and Vichy France. After breaking the back of the Wehrmacht the game has been easy, too easy. Japan had hardly any forces in the wast area they had taken while I was preoccupied with Germany. I'm now toying with Japan as a cat plays with a dead mice. All but the main Island has been taken by me or the allies. I've got something like 1200 IC's so it's not a real challange, just a matter of time.

Planning to start my next game with a smaller country, Rumania perhaps and waiting for a patch with a better AI.

[Nikolai]

Next patch is finished, it just have to be accepted by the publisher and so on... I guess it'll come out tomorrow or something near that.

And yes, Sovjet is easy. I played her as my first game, and after a few major newbee mistakes, I crushed Germany. It was harder and more fun because of my mistakes though... Germany is very easy, so if you want a challenge there, you probably have to DoW early, or restrict yourself by for example not allow yourself to build more than a few units a year.

[Kropotkin]

Yeah, I saw that 1,04 is on the way. Will work fine with the end of the current game. The germans where doing pretty OK against me at first. Granted, I stopped their offensive pretty quickly but I couldn't push them back much without quite a lot of effort. What I did was to run down the coastline of the black sea and pupped Romania. The AI was never able to do much after that.

[Jools]

Woah!
I betatested this game and to tell you the truth when it came out I already was bored of it. I still play it from time to time. It's excellent on multiplayer but single player is lacking. I don't like the aspect that it has to end in 48'.