Just got HoI

[DinoDoc]

What's a good country for a newbie to start out in?

[ravagon]

You probably want to try one of the majors - either the US or UK ideally as then you won't have immediate concerns with large armies running you over, you'll get the chance to take a look at tech trees beyond land warfare, and to play around with convoys a bit without major resource worries.

Also note: If this is your first Paradox game - patches win matches.

[Cookie Monster]

Make sure before you do anything to DL the latest patch. Check out www.europa-universalis.com/forum/index.php for details. You will need to get patch 1.05 and then 1.05b I believe.

Without these patches HOI is very buggy.

That said I would agree with ravagon on his recommendations. Bear in mind though that the UK will have gajillions of convoys to manage which might be daunting to the newbie. Germany is another good choice IMO because they have decent economic potential but must build up their airforce and army before the war begins. (if you play the '36 scenario that is)

Which ever country you do pick pay attention to the world market and setup trades asap. You get more bang for your buck so to speak while at peace then you do at war. Basically any surplus resources you have should be used in aggressive trade deals to secure a stockpile of resources you desperately need before the war breaks out. (usually this is either/or oil/rubber)

Good luck HOI is a great game and may take some time to get used to. If you've ever played EU/EUII you will have an easier time grasping HOI.

[DinoDoc]

How hard would Finland be to play?

[Nikolai]

Very hard. Imagine fighting an opponent that often beat(or at least give a hard fight) Germany and has HUGE a manpower base, with little recources and manpower!

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
How hard would Finland be to play?

Hard but not impossible. I've seen players AAR's on the paradox forums that talk about winning with Austria so I'm sure it's possible as Finland.

One thing that I would recommend if playing Finland is giving in to Soviet demands for territory. If you don't then they'll start the winter war against you. As Finland I'm sure you will have to do some aggressive trading and building up of your IC's.

[Cookie Monster]

Check this AAR for a fantastic story about Finland. This shows you that it can be done!

[Nikolai]

Impressive!

[Serb]

Soviets it's a newbie's choice. No one can stand against the mighty Red Colossus.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Haupt. Dietrich


Hard but not impossible. I've seen players AAR's on the paradox forums that talk about winning with Austria so I'm sure it's possible as Finland.

More than possible. Finland is not hard. Bulgaria is hard. Persia is very hard. Siam- supermega hard

One thing that I would recommend if playing Finland is giving in to Soviet demands for territory.

Don't listen to him DD.
Not a single step back. Give up nothing. You should go forward up to Ural.
But, take care about your manpower. It's Finland's major weakness. If you are out of men, you're toast. Forget about infantry. Tanks, only tanks.

[David Floyd]

I think that the Soviet Union is a pretty good nation to start out with - you can easily crush the German AI on any level of difficulty. The opposite is also true, but the difference is that with the Soviets, you can concentrate on land warfare, rather than that and a bunch of other stuff.

Once you realize how easy the game is, even on it's most difficult setting, I would highly recommend downloading the Stony Road mod, which can be found on Paradox's HoI forums. This gives the game a HUGE AI boost, and makes it pretty challenging.

[Nikolai]

SU is a good choice as a newbee, but nevertheless, be carefull. I had my first game as SU, and won over Germany with ease.

But my second try, I was a little more ambitious, and got serious problems. What you should know is that each time you attack another nation, you lower the war readiness towards Germany, and the result often is no war between the axis and allies, but a war between you and the allies, plus that Germany will DoW you sometime too...

But this is if you are too ambitious, and can happen with any nation btw.

Oh, and did I mention I'm a mediocre player?

[Cookie Monster]

Dino Doc:


Have you been playing? Just curious to see how you are making out with HOI.