HoI3 announced

[Nikolai]

From his arse. It's only speculation so far. What we do know, is that there will be a return to the HoI1 tech system in some way, but nothing is known on how exactly it will be. It's entirely possible that HoI3 will use both tech teams and a HoI1esque tech tree, or even something entirely new baked into it.

[Spaced Cowboy]

On the German forums there was some mention of Vicky type research. I have no idea what that is since I don't have Vicky, but the posts on the Hoi3 forums seem to suggest no tech teams because of this.

[Grumbold]

I'm delighted the tech is taking a step back from the "one upgrade along a linear path every 2 years" style of HoI2. I'm a tech junkie and love having alternatives even if their impact on gameplay is minor.

The 10k provinces is a bit scary. I'd rather see better AI handling of the provinces we already had than a threefold expansion in territory (and presumably a tripling of the number of military formations needed to contest them, garrison them etc.)

[Patroklos]

The 10k provinces is a bit scary. I'd rather see better AI handling of the provinces we already had than a threefold expansion in territory (and presumably a tripling of the number of military formations needed to contest them, garrison them etc.)

I think the point is you won't have a tripling of formations and will have to rely on maneuver. In reality the most WWII fronts were not a wall of infantry and tanks, but rather an elastic band of mobile units (stabilized somewhat by a convenient river of mountain range).

[Grumbold]

We shall see. In any system where breaking through and surrounding units before destroying them in detail is more effective than head to head confrontation, leaving gaps is not likely to be a good strategy. There's also the risk that in a real time environment either the AI will be bad at manoeuvering or the player will have to click like mad to keep pace. It took a long time before the HoI 2 AI would effectively defend in depth and manoeuver to prevent envelopments even with the current system.

Either way that still leaves the need to garrison those provinces, unless the garrison effect becomes regional. I'm just wary of added troop micromanagement that doesn't add extra depth, but hopefully that won't be the outcome.

[Ninot]

I can imagine a way it works. If somehow troops cover a range of territories rather than just the one they are sitting in, and the range depends on if they are mobile or not, then this could work very well. I don't like how in bogged down war situations, its just masses of stacks attacking each other without much maneuvering.