Hearts of Iron II: War Stories

[DarkCloud]

...Because I thought it might be vaguely interesting. Feel free to share your war stories below.

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I recently purchased HoI II and I must say, it is a most excellent and enthralling game.

Since I wanted to limit myself in my first session to something easily understood, I took control of Germany, a land power, and completely ignored both air force and naval units from 1938-1941. (In late 1940 I invaded Sweden, Denmark and Norway so naval units were necessary). I learned a lot about the game as I played and probably would have conquered France a lot sooner had I cut off the Maginot line's supply lines instead of throwing unit after unit at them.

Well, basically it's May 1942 and Germany is still at peace with Russia. I've been trying to get Vichy France allied with me, and have reputation at +141 after hundreds in bribes, but they won't even allow me military access... I'll probably DoW on them.

Timeline goes as follows:

Game starts in 1938...
Ally with Spain, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia.

late 1939 conquer all of France save Vichy.

mid 1940 FINALLY finish mopping up poland with the brave assistance of the Romanians. (I accidentally had a 15 unit of panzers and mech infantry cut off behind polish lines- they sent two groups of ONE infantry behind my lines to cut them off when I was dealing with the french... so the conquest took forever.)

1940 Ally with Yugoslavia and Italy (which is useless)
Yugoslavia, with the aid of 2 German panzers, takes all of Greece... which somehow eluded the Iralians.

Decline the event to ally with the Japanese... I don't want the US getting involved in the war. Also decline the event to invade Norway at the historically correct time; I figured I could allow it independence... d-mn the british.

Dec 1940: Conquer the Netherlands in 3 days.

January 1941: Conquer Luxemborg in 1 day.

April 1941, attack Denmark, send ships across to Sweden.

June 1941 US declares war (angered over sweden I suppose)

July 1941 attack Norway because the UK keeps basing units there Conquer it quite quickly

August 1941 Patton arrives in Spain with 30 divisions. The spanish quickly collapse.
I send a few units down there. Spain loses all but 2 provinces.

November 1941: Japanese bomb pearl harbor (a little early?) US pulls patton somewhere... Italians lose ALL OF NORTH AFRICA.

Bulgaria joins alliance.

March 1942: I finally reconquer all of spain, save Gibralter (still working on that) Launch an invasion of England through Edinborough... If I had about 3 more units, I could have made it.

June 1942: Present... Am planning on launching a second land invasion of England. Considering sending ships to North Africa.

Worried about massing forces on Russian Border.

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Question: What's the best way to deal with oil. I didn't have any problem until I built a lot of planes to deal with british bombers... now I'm running a huge shortfall. Should I go invade Iraq? Trade is keeping me safe right now... tankfully the Romanians and Italians have a bunch of oil, but I'm having difficulty locating good sources... Baku has some... but unless I get persia on my side and spend forever moving units through Turkey, and DoW on russia- that makes little sense.

Thanks,
DC.

[Harovan]

When I play Germany, I usual play pretty much historical until mid-1940. Poland in 1939, Norway in March or April, Benelux and France until Vichy in April or May 1940. I invade who has historically been invaded, and ally with historical allies. I never invade countries who are friendly to me, like Switzerland or Sweden.

After mid-1940 I have 2 ways to play; either I limit myself to continue historically (no Sealion, no Gibraltar, no Suez), or I play World Power. The first feels right, but has the disadvantage, that I get into the conflict, that as player I want to win, which of course clashes with history. The second doesn't feel right, but it certainly feels good.

When I play World Power, I capture Island (sometimes even Greenland) from the Brits right after Weserübung (Norway), before the Yanks can get it. This may cost one or another ship as the French and Brits will attack the invading fleet, but it is important, because it gets some Canadian provinces within invasion range, which I need later. There is a way to annex both when you annex Denmark (just avoid Kolding and the "Denmark capitulates" event won't trigger), but that's kind of lame. I do a Sealion in summer 1940 (which is ridiculously easy) and put garrisons in all provinces with more than 3 IC. This gives me a very nice industrial boost.

Then I invade Spain, if the Republicans won the civil war. After victory I release Nationalist Spain as puppet (and capture Gibraltar of course). If the Nationalists won the civil war, I get them as allies and capture Gibraltar too. Then I launch an assault on Suez from Crete (after the Yugo/Greece campaign) and secure it too. This turns the Mediterranean sea into my bath tub and cuts the British fleet in the Med and the British forces in Africa from supplies (the rest do my subs). This way, the Duce has no problem to capture the whole Africa without my help in 41/42, which I let him have as it is a worthless ****hole.

Until May 1941 my army is usually ready for Barbarossa, my eastern front has usually about 100-120 infantry, ~10 mountain, 20 armored and 20 motorized divisions. I don't build mechanized in 1940, as it don't feel right and mots and tanks do fine. I make up 4 panzer groups; 2 in northern Poland, and 2 in southern. One of the southern goes toward Kiev, captures it and then turns south on Odessa (pocket #1). The other southern and one northern create a pocket #2 around the Pripjat swamps. The last northern goes through Belorussia and Lithuania toward Riga (pocket #3). Tip: have infantry follow your tanks or they will get cut off. Silly tip as it's trivial... just making sure...

After Goerings luftwaffe had the 3 pockets I create a new front and have the 2 southern panzer groups go straight toward Stalingrad and further to Sverdlovsk (this one you need only if the Japanese are too dumb to capture Vladivostok, which is about 50-50). No infantry is necessary, as the AI is pathetic and defends only Moscow, leaving the whole South undefended . For the right feeling, you can of course have the boots follow the tracks.

A second department in the south (usually my ~10 mountaineers) go over Crimea and Novorossijsk to the Caucasus and capture Baku. In the north Leningrad usually falls easily, Moscow is a bit more difficult if you let the Soviets concentrate all their remaining infantry in it, but doable with a bit experience. After you capture the mentioned key provinces, Bitter Peace triggers about within a month and you have the European part of the SU with only 2% partisan activity - an IC boost that makes you practically invincible. I create Aserbaijan as puppet, that gives me 66 oil per day. Per event Persia turns hostile; I conquer it 1942, followed by Pakistan and India and meet my Japanese allies somewhere in Thailand.

1943 is it time to face the USA. By this time I usually have a huge fleet, which I build in 1941 and 1942 (nothing more to do with the IC). I usually land 20-30 divisions in Canada (as mentioned above), and with the time I ship 100-150 divisions over. The USA aren't hard if you bring enough troops and have enough convoys to supply them! (I usually have about 1000 by this time). Don't forget to bring fighters (multi-role are better for the bigger range) as the American airforce will hurt you bigtime. Make sure the Atlantic is yours (have battleships/destroyers patrol). Bring some bombers too, tactical are fine (dive bombers have a too short range for America). And by "some" I mean about 2 dozen wings, no less. When you captured the States mainland, it usually takes some effort to capture all their islands; you may have to build some ports to get stuff within reach.

By this time, you may just declare victory and start a new game, preferrably with another country, or you take another challenge - either to reach peace by capturing and/or puppeting all enemies (Rest-France, Belgium and Netherlands , some British colonial provinces, Australia, New Zealand et al.), or to turn the world entirely grey. I usually prefer the former.

The whole game, by the way, is meant to be played in multiplayer, the AI is pretty silly. Shame I don't have the time for this.

[Harovan]

About oil some tips:

Get what you can from Romania on Jan 3rd, 1936. You get ~40 per day for usually 65-80 energy and (what is important!) they don't cancel the deal over the whole game. Argentina gives you ~10 oil per day for 15-20 energy, secure that too, early. Later, when you can afford it, the Soviet union gives you very sweet deals of oil for supplies (~3 oil per supply).

Stock up early and you get enough for the whole game. If you failed, just capture states with oil provinces and release them as puppets. The latter is important, because a puppet will give you all of its resource income after stocking itself up to 1000. If you control the oil province yourself, you get only about a third.

Main oil suppliers are Azerbaijan and Persia. The former I create as puppet, the latter I annex for myself because it gives me access to the Indian ocean.

Don't underestimate conversion too, when you have 400 IC it can get you 40 oil per day for very little coal (energy), if you researched the conversion techs.

[DarkCloud]

Stock up early and you get enough for the whole game. If you failed, just capture states with oil provinces and release them as puppets. The latter is important, because a puppet will give you all of its resource income after stocking itself up to 1000. If you control the oil province yourself, you get only about a third.

Really? I didn't know that... why do you only get a third if you control the oil province yourself?

Thanks for the tips. On the next game I start I think I'll play a little earlier in the history (1936) and try out those ideas.

my eastern front has usually about 100-120 infantry, ~10 mountain, 20 armored and 20 motorized divisions.

In that case I am vastly under prepared. I have, at most 100 units total... at most about 40 on the Russian front.

The whole game, by the way, is meant to be played in multiplayer, the AI is pretty silly.

Really... didn't know that. Then again, you'd probably destroy me .

It does appear that after I know a few tactics, I can run roughshod over the AI... even on my first playthrough I'm currently doing quite well.

I think next time I might eitehr do Germany from 1936 or try out Russia... it should be an interesting Challenge... Or maybe I could go crazy and defend as France... I wonder if I can keep it from falling if I start in 1936.

Thanks for the hints.

[Spaced Cowboy]

I agree the AI is pretty silly, I'm going to start a game as Italy, since I owned as Germany already.

Maybe I'll do an AAR...maybe.

[Harovan]

You get only a part of the resources and IC from captured provinces, a good option for resource rich provinces is always to release them as puppet. Your 2 main deficits are oil and rares. Oil you can get plenty, rares are bit more difficult to come by.

Originally posted by DarkCloud
I think next time I might eitehr do Germany from 1936 or try out Russia... it should be an interesting Challenge... Or maybe I could go crazy and defend as France... I wonder if I can keep it from falling if I start in 1936.

Thanks for the hints.

Playing a game as Germany (of course from 1936) until the victory in Barbarossa will give you the basics you need to know.

France is a good challenge (although doable), an even better one is Poland . Romania as smaller country is great fun to play too.

[Patroklos]

Oerdin was trying to gat a game started a month or so ago, any of you guys game?

[DarkCloud]

Oh, a problem that I don't know how to solve or why it happened...

I have conquered England and Syria, but both areas are completely out of supply. I checked my convoys to the areas (on the production screen) and found I have ZERO? Why did this happen, and how could I increase the number of convoys.

America landed on England and is destroying my superior force because it is mysteriously out of supply?

Thanks,
DC
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PS: Patroklos, I might be... but what are the time requirements, and will we be playing in real time? Do we all just log on at once, play on slow setting and have at it?

[Nikolai]

Did your convoys have enough protection? They're probably sunk. Or you might have produced too few to meet your country's demands.

[DarkCloud]

I didn't even know I could protect them? I have had them automated for quite some time.

[Nikolai]

Convoys need escorts to protect them, if not they will be sunk as soon as they meet the enemy. You can build the escorts the same place you build the convoys.

[Nikolai]

BTW, I'd suggest you reload to a save a little earlier and build both escorts and convoys en masse. If you consider that cheating and will continue from where you are now, I'd recommend you evacuate the Isles ASAP. You won't be able to resist the enemy at all, and will loose everything you have there if you stay.

[DarkCloud]

Okay, I'll look at that. Guess it's time to reload...

[Harovan]

Yep, build convoys. With the starting convoys you can barely support a few divisions in Norway. For Sealion and isles/beachheads in the Med you need more, try ~200 for a start to be safe. Even more you'll need if you land overseas. It's usually not necessary to protect them with escorts, though, the AI sucks at convoy hunting. Just have one endless series of convoys up all time, that should cover your losses.

[Patroklos]

PS: Patroklos, I might be... but what are the time requirements, and will we be playing in real time? Do we all just log on at once, play on slow setting and have at it?

I have never played online either, having like you discovered the game when most of the attention had passed. As I understand you play it real time with all the players logged in at the same time on whatever speed you want.