>HoI3
>Arsenal of Democracy
>Darkest Hour
Sell me your favorite.

HoI3 is good militarily but has fuck all politically.
Darkest Hour is good politically but the military greatly suffers from lack of provinces/doomstacking
Don't even know what AoD is.

DH has the most accurate map and the best performance. The downside is every month is 30 days.

>>2080364 (OP)
HoI3 easily.

AoD is just worse DH and DH is proto HoI4 where you can shift Nazi Germany into memetopia over a few years. Warfare in DH is far worse too.
I'd say if you just want to larp as some retarded bullshit then DH is your game - it's at least more freeform than goi$'s focuses. However, if you want believable worlds and the best war mechanics Paradox have ever made, which are better than many outright wargames', then HoI3 has no competition.
I love the tech company system in DH and I probably sound overly harsh to it here. HoI3 is perhaps too grounded and could have used some sliders on the politicial tab but that game is squarely and firmly about ww2 and nothing else. The theoreticals and practicals system is also fantastic but I wish it had been with tech companies and not instead of them.

Naval warfare in DH is awful whereas HoI3 has very good naval warfare. I would argue the same for air too but the HoI3 air system confounds a lot of people.

>>2080485
>best performance.
How is Brazil? Your Pentium II still going strong?

>>2080485
Are all paradox players actually brown?

>>2080488
Every decent mechanic in hoi3 is sabotaged by the fact that the game has the worst AI in the series. What’s the point of the autistic OoB system that the enemy can’t even make use of? I can only laugh when a hoi3tard criticizes DH for being unrealistic when my very first Sealion in hoi3 succeeded by walking HQ divisions across an empty British Isles.

>>2080488
Hard agree.

People who praise HoI3 have never actually played the game.

>>2080488
>DH is proto HoI4 where you can shift Nazi Germany into memetopia over a few years.
What the actual fuck do you mean by this?
>Naval warfare in DH is awful whereas HoI3 has very good naval warfare.
Isn't it the same shit in both games? Stack CV, drop a few DD or whatever as escorts.

>>2080367
>HoI3 is good militarily but has fuck all politically.
As it should be.

>>2080364 (OP)
>HoI3
Has HPP and BICE
>Darkest Hour
Has FODD; vanilla has the 1933 start and thus covers for the tail end of the Warlord era and decent play on China

I'd fucking love to have FODD on HoI3 logistics and with HPP take on leadership, but I understand why they sticked to DH.

>>2080367
>Darkest Hour is good politically but the military greatly suffers from lack of provinces
Ever tried the improved map? Really saves the game, by the virtua of quadrupling amount of provinces and also improving tiny spots as zoom-in sectors.

>>2080489
>Game can run on literal potato without any issues, always fast, always efficient
>This is somehow bad
How is having 32 GB RAM, because the game is written in spaghetti and wasn't even send for optimisation, just shipped as it was when the crunch was over?

>>2082764
>What’s the point of the autistic OoB system that the enemy can’t even make use of?
It's worse than that. AI CAN make use of OoB... but it still carries the old-ass AI scripts dating back from EU2 days. In other words, AI is scripted to do retarded shit as Italy (and shitty OoB, too), PLUS it will keep using the OoB it is at the game start, even if anyone sane would instantly delete it and remodel the whole thing.
So yeah... it's really fucking shit.

>>2082798
Inverse - people who shit on it never played any HoI than 4/got filtered in less than 10 minutes by any non-4 HoI

>>2082815
Depends entirely on what's your goal and how you plan to play, along with the reason why CV are strong.
See, in DH, CV isn't an actual CV. What it is is a ship like every other, except it has insane range of its "gun" and said gun deals damage via naval bombing value of the CAG added to the CV. And it kinda-sorta works as intended, except has few quirks where it doesn't. Namely, if your own range of guns is below 15km (which is majority of screens and all subs), you will NEVER get into a firing position against CV. You literally can't hurt them. And that, in DH combat resolution, means CVs are virtually indisctructable unless you have a really big fucking conventional fleet OR build CVs yourself (hope you've got a naval tech team that specialises in that stuff and some doctrine tech team that can research CV positioning).
Whereas in HoI3, CV uses actual planes for actual attack, but the ship itself is a sitting duck when caught up close, since it carries some token AA guns at best. This significantly changes combat resolution, since you can due various things against carriers that are perfectly logical, rather than having to adhere to really convoluted meta to deal with them at all.
HoI3 of course has its own problems, but that game is the closest PDX was to ever have functional naval combat, and mods were able to iron out various kinks of the system, too.

>>2080364 (OP)
I hate how I was always too retarded to learn DH back in the day because I never figured out how to make functional unit comps. The impression I got over the years is that if I tried getting into the game again, I can probably beat the entire campaign with just infantry if I'm on single player. I specifically remember some anon telling me how air can be completely ignored because the AI never do their air raids correctly. What I also heard is that at this point HOI4 is better than DH if you're just looking at those two, but I really hate focus trees as a concept so I never picked up HOI4 properly even though that game's way easier to learn.

>>2082892
Ok, let's try with this one, one bit at a time
>I never figured out how to make functional unit comps
That would be HoI3 and onward. In DH, you just make infantry. Lots of infantry. And some token motorised (not even tanks or mecha, just trucks for that sweet, sweet speed no other unit has)
>how air can be completely ignored
Depends on who you are facing and as who. Do you want to have some handy CAS and TAC for overcoming the spots you want to get to? Sure. Can you do without them? Of course, as long as you know what you are doing with land warfare.
>AI never do their air raids correctly
Correct. I don't even think AI is scripted to use them in any other way than randomly picking targets and thus range being deciding factors, so no deep raids, ever.
>What I also heard is that at this point HOI4 is better than DH if you're just looking at those two
Better in what was? Ability to overcome AI due to its inability to play the game? Ability to fucking shit up and still winning? Because I genuinely struggle with the idea of 4 being better game than DH. It sure is EASIER game. Said that, DH is like 2nd easiest of HoI games, even more so than vanilla HoI2 it is expanding on (since 2 had a bunch of truly obtuse mechanics that made it harder to get into and somehow even worse research system)

>>2082870
And how is this unrealistic? Carrier battles were fought at a distance.

>>2082870
OP here, this pretty much clinches it for me. However, if I play it anytime soon I might need an hand in picking a country. I think I've tried all the countries I wanted and gotten all the interesting results I could.

>Japan
Only country I've won outright as the Axis with, was fun but don't feel the need to do it again.

>USSR
When I was a noob I managed to fuck up so badly I got the entire Red Army destroyed and the Axis occupied almost every inch of clay except Moscow proper. Still won.

>Nationalist China
Was kinda fun but after kicking Japan's ass I got bored trying to build a proper navy

>Italy
Did great, conquered the entirety of Africa single handed, but then Germany ran out of warm bodies and collapsed. Red Army reached my border right as I was about to start building nukes. Never got around to finishing that campaign.

>Pretty much every minor that you can possibly join the Axis with
Yugoslavia was fun, involved 1v1ing Nepali troops in Pakistan. But then USSR surrendered and I got every inch of it that the Germans didn't occupy. Laughed too hard to continue.

Never much cared for being Germany since you kind of have limited options strategy wise. Also USA and UK seem too easy but also tedious.

>>2083258
Nta, but the combat resolution in 2/DH makes it impossible to hit CLs at all, unless you have the 44/45 battleship or an equal CL in your fleet. Otherwise, the side with worse CL will always lose, because they can't hit the other side due to being out-ranged.
To put that into some numerical perspective: 1939 battleship has 30 km range. 1938 CL (or rather its CAG) has range of 180 km. There is no way in hell to ever get into positioning where you get close enough to do a salvo, while the carrier hits you with complete impunity

>>2083258
Also, keep in mind you can't destroy or even damage the CAG. It's always at 100% capacity. When you are AA defending against it, you simply don't take damage, but you can't shoot any planes down, as there are no planes. This MASSIVELY changes how combat works, including the little issue of CAG being unaffected by weather if the battle already started (it can launch during storm, but if orders were given prior to weather going to shit, it will take part in combat)

>>2083901
*CVs

>>2083333
Try out Guangxi Clique. It's pretty much Nat China, but weirder and with extra steps that require careful planning.
Axis Poland is fun, since you gain juuuust enough time to arm for the war against the Soviets
Ever tried Czech defense war?

>>2083901
they could've easily solved this by making CVs get a horrible positioning penalty, if it doesn't have enough screening forces. Making CAGs take damage shouldn't have been hard to do either. What were the devs thinking?

>>2080364 (OP)
I really want to love AoD, but being unable to sidegrade units just triggers me so hard. Things like mechanization have to be implemented through scripts instead of base game mechanics. DH of course has loads of mods, but many are buggy and incomplete. I used to like Kaiserreich, but I'll never forgive it for giving us HoI4 retardation. I do love HoI3 and co-op multiplayer HoI3 is genuinely peak Paradox, but I'm not a student anymore and don't really have the time to play it. I really wanted to be contrarian here, but I guess it'll be Darkest Hour for me.

>>2080488
Truth nuke

>>2082870
Again, total nuclear truthification. I fucking love HoI3 CVs.

>>2082815
>Isn't it the same shit in both games? Stack CV, drop a few DD or whatever as escorts.
You have no understanding of how DH or HoI3 actually works so your opinion is worthless.

>>2080364 (OP)
This, every time.

>>2080364 (OP)
literally all I want in life is a willing slut and darkest hour with like 5 times as many provinces and a division designer and better naval and air combat

>>2082903
>In DH, you just make infantry. Lots of infantry
Yeah, see? Everyone says you just build infantry, so that's the "comp" I'll be going with once the time comes for me to try DH again.

>Better in what was?
Again, this is what I HEARD. My personal take is that HOI4 sucks because the focus tree mechanic takes all the strategizing out of the game. I tried a few campaigns in it back during Waking the Tiger and felt limited because of the focus tree, and this was back when the game was less locked down and you could still do fun LARP-y Adenauer campaigns that broke the focus tree of the time. Whether it's better than DH to me is still uncertain since I haven't finished any DH campaigns (yet!), but what I've HEARD is that the current HOI4 AI is more competent when it comes to fighting wars. I don't know whether that's true or not since the last time I touched HOI4 was during Man the Guns, I think by that point the game was so forceful with the focus tree bullshit that I couldn't do the Adenauer campaign I always did unless I did it the focus tree way which I didn't like, so I just stopped trying with it altogether.

What would be really cool is if there was a mod for HOI4 that gave everyone very minimal focus trees so that campaigns felt more sandbox-y (within reason), but from what I understand the game as it is right now is completely dependent on focus trees for the diplomatic AI to function. I think one of the modern day mods (forgot which one) tried to not have any focus trees at all at one point, but they've since gone back to them presumably because literally nothing happens unless it's in someone's focus tree somewhere.

>>2089490
goi$ sucks for many reasons and focus trees are just one of the more obvious issues
the hoi4 ai is not particularly better than the dh or hoi3 ai in fact i wouldn't be surprised if it was the exact same but there have been mechanical changes to the game which level the playing field
the fact goi$ pushes the player to use "battleplans" and gives huge bonuses for doing so should illustrate how paradox chose to paper over the issue rather than make a better ai
similarly, air units are no longer units and naval units are given vague missions rather than specific orders and even issuing a move command halves your org which is utterly outrageous
>literally nothing happens unless it's in someone's focus tree somewhere.
yes

i could rant on about how awful goi$ is and how core design decisions preclude it from ever being a good game but it's nothing new
it's a shame too because the equipment mechanic could have been interesting yet it is completely at odds with the rest of the game design

>>2089490
>by that point the game was so forceful with the focus tree bullshit that I [...] just stopped trying with it altogether.
Good to see im not the only one, nowadays the focus are worse, it's a mix of ancient ones where 70 days gives you a factory and the new ones that in 30 days which give you some wacky buff like 10% more attack just because. And most nations even have retarded rules that disable core mechanics unless you do x focus, some only available in y path.

The front ai is better and will try to use it's armor to attack your weak points along the front, however the nation ai is still retarded and will routinely disband it's productions lines. massively reducing their potential stockpile and army size

>>2089490
>Mostly build infantry
I never understood this criticism, especially for a game with Divisions as it's base unit size. In 1940, Germany had what, 9 full strength panzer divisions and two partial strength ones, 3 properly motorized infantry divisions and a handful of partial ones, and something like 80 normal infantry divisions. 90% of the army was foot infantry. France was even worse off with 3 big armored divisions and what in DH would be, maybe 4 motorized with a light tank and armored car attachment? The rest of the army was infantry and almost entirely un-motorized.
Armor in DH is great, as are Motos. Both can overrun retreating infantry and it's a lot harder to shit out units in DH than Hoi4, so losing a division is an even bigger deal.

>>2090348
you're a stupid dumb idiot brain
you're so stupid you presumably need me to explain why you are such a moronic imbecile so let me try and do it simply such that you might understand

this is completely ignoring that you're using 1940 as your reference point which might as well be interwar
there is a big difference between
>building nothing but infantry is the best thing to do unless manpower forces you to do otherwise
and
>you need a lot of infantry to hold the line but specialist units serve important roles and without them you completely lose strategic options
in darkest hour a tank is just ic expensive fancy infantry: in hoi3 a tank is completely different to infantry and serves entirely different roles

in dh it isn't even a good idea to upgrade your units unless you have more ic than you can use which is obviously completely ahistorical as better more modern armies repeatedly crushed larger inferior enemies
hoi3 corrected all of this and it was fantastic
>than HoI4
don't you have a containment thread? go back to your visual novels

>>2090390
No need to get mad bro. I may have worded it wrong, but the point I was trying to make is this: how is "Build infantry lots, lots of infantry," a criticism of the game? A tank is more than IC expensive fancy infantry, it's faster and drains less manpower, both matter. Besides, armies were largely foot infantry for a large part of the war, especially on the losing side. I understand that upgrades are wasted IC, especially after 36' infantry, but having an armored core of specialists is far from "just build infantry and never upgrade it." Especially when you can focus upgrade IC, if you use it, on specific divisions. My assumption was that the previous poster had played neither 3 or 2, but had played 4. Thus the comparison. I'm in complete agreement that 3 fixed everything except the map projection and modding. Building your own order of Battle is one of the best parts if any HoI game ever made.

>>2090437
clearly i did not explain it simply enough for your calcified smoothbrain because you evidently failed to understand that in darkest hour you should literally never make tanks while you have the manpower to make infantry
>just build infantry and never upgrade it
is the best way to play dh
only when you are down to reserve levels of manpower should you even consider doing anything else
during the interwar period making tanks is a total waste of ic as almost everybody because you have surplus manpower and you don't have enough divisions to fill out frontage everywhere
the dh flowchart is
>make infantry
>make artillery
>upgrade units
>make tanks
>make air (extreme luxury)
these things are not in parallel which is a gross indictment of the game and there is no reason to make mot or mech other than vanity and larping which is always a part of these games but which the mechanics should reinforce not undermine

since frontage is determined primarily by leaders and hqs you can swarm even tiny fronts with huge amounts of infantry at no penalty
in stark contrast to hoi3 where it is determined by geography

the sea war is similarly binary although even more extreme because the only vessel you should ever make is cv

war in dh is terrible i would assert that it's even worse than civ

AoD had the best combat simulation and thus wins. DHs combat is awful, thus loses. HoI 3 is an entirely different game, fun but broken.

AoD wins, as always.

>>2090858
>AoD
I tried replaying this after not playing for like 15 years and getting used to hoi4 and I can barely remember how to play anymore

>>2084088
>Muh positioning debuff
Fuck off, Brian. Your mod is shit, and your idea of solving not broken things is retarded

I like HoI3

>>2090927
Doomstacking fleets doesn't work in hoi3 but the AI can't help it. I love raping the RN too they have so much outdated shit.

>>2090947
Doomstacking works with the right doctrines past '43. Shame that most of AI isn't scripted to use them.

>>2086771
>1.03
No thank you.
1.04 or go home, for you're drunk

>>2090836
>there is no reason to make mot
Token 3 '35 Mot divisions is the best spearhead you will ever get in this game, fucking both AI and human players sideways. That's because DH's Mot has speed of 28. Only post-war Air Cav has higher speed.
>or mech
Agreed. Mech is consistently a noob trap in HoI ever since the original game. For that IC/factories (not to mention research) you could get fuckload of actual useful units and years earlier, rather than lapring halftrucks
>the only vessel you should ever make is cv
BlueEmu half-jokingly proven (potentially before you were born) that submarines are very fucking viable. It works in 2, DH and 3 on the very similar principle (however, you can't easily starve colonial armies like it works in 2/HD). There was even a period of 4 where even there it was viable, but of course idiots stacked it until PDX nerfed the shit out of it
3 has a window where early war (not pre-war, early war) CA are perfectly viable, allowing to cheaply destroy enemy fleets that are outside bombing range. Details depends on who you are facing, but 40-early 43 is CA hunting grounds

>>2091655
i have been told that mech is viable in hoi3 if you cheese mobile practicals but only as a handful of ic and leadership rich nations
the stats it provides are tremendous but typically you have low mob practicals however if you use a cav/mot army then you can upgrade pretty cheaply
air units snowball so whether or not it's a better option than air idk since i've never done it myself
>carrying this much water for garbage mechanics
good luck using 3 mot divisions to do anything against a human
the ai is pitiful you could win making anything
submarines do not establish naval dominance they serve a different role and you can easily starve armies in hoi3 it just typically requires some logistics bombing or combat because the game automatically creates stockpiles on islands
however, yes, convoy raiding is a thing so i suppose you can make dd, ss, and cv, amazing, and you want dds for screening the positioning penalty too
ca typically cannot even shoot at cv but i really find the idea that you would attempt to defend dh's naval warfare at all ridiculous because it is easily one of if not the worst part of the entire game
the real indictment is that cv is worth building even as italy where you should have land based air but cags aren't cags by any definition they are just railguns
>>2091651
the naval war is almost certainly over by 1943 but if it isn't then the air war is what is going to decide it
radar makes doomstacks permanently visible and if you don't have int cover or an absurd amount of cvs then nav will obliterate you but if you did have that then why doomstack

one advantage cvs have over other naval units is that they lose almost zero offensive capabilities over time and uniquely they can support engagements from outside the battle by using cags as naval bombers
they also function as expensive multiroles
none of which they can do in dh

>>2091653
I only meant to post the image, not the version.
Care to explain wpgs2yhy 1.04

>>2090858
I'm playing CORE as Germany and it feels easy, but I haven't invaded the USSR so we'll see. Also the ai doesn't seem to convoy raid me or blockade me, I'm still trading with Venezuela and Brazil without any deficiency.

Any tips for HoI3? I'm shit at it

Gentlemen please. Can we not all agree that the greatest tragedy of all time was not refining hoi3 into the best game ever?
Improving the AI
Fixing some bugs.
Historically accurate scenarios.
Alternative universe scenarios.
Transparent mechanics.
Greater Fog of War.
Streamlined multiplayer with excellent matchmaking.
Hoi3 could have be steadily improved to have all the bad stuff fixed and all the good stuff expanded upon. Hoi4 should have been "hoi3, fixed, bigger, and better."
Instead we got "hoi3 lite, dumbed down and with pretty colors"

I love this graph. I’m currently playing as Italy and trying to close off the Mediterranean, but the Brits still hold Malta and Tel Aviv. We’ve crossed into Gaza and taken the Suez, but the British destroyed all my convoys. Right now, I’m launching port strikes into Malta from Sicily and supplying the entire front with just one transport plane making nonstop runs from Sicily to Benghazi. I’m winning the air war and focusing on sinking their convoys and taking out their carrier air groups, so I can finally get rid of their carriers.

>>2093153
>supplying the entire front with just one transport plane making nonstop runs from Sicily to Benghazi
How?
Whenever I use transport planes they just immediately drink all the supplies from point A.
Apart from the rare case the transport plane is based in the capital, but there's rarely supply issues that close to the capital (only case I can think is port fuckery post d-day)

>>2092232
as who?
you mostly just need to do intuitive things: make infantry, artillery, armor, and at if you're fighting a major
being ahead on small arms etc gives you a huge advantage

>>2092232
Just play it. The AI is pretty shit. Mind you if you fuck up really bad it will ARSE FUCK YOU.
Mercilessly.
Oh! You thought you would do a cutesy little invasion but forget to take a big port? TOO BAD BITCH! Good decent men who placed their trust in your leadership are now getting MOWED DOWN in their THOUSANDS!
Goodness! You thought it would be swell to fight a land war in Asia during the monsoon? Okay, so bend over and lube up becasue your anus is about to get very slowly plowed!
Oh my! You forgot that tanks move faster than infantry and now those MIGHTY PANZER divisions are ripping your infantry only army a new asshole? Well then! You had better start stockpiling DIAPERS because you are going to have a lot of ANAL LEAKAGE!
But that said, once you learn the hang of things its a piece of cake to catch the AI with its panties down. That's roight! With its girlie panties, all pink and pretty, right down around its ankles! Get behind the AI and give it a shove. With its panties around its ankles all it can do is fall over. Now its ass is raised in the air. For your taking. Whip out your monster cock sock full of Paratroops, CVs, Mountain Infantry, and all the good shit and just FUCKING POUND THAT ASS! FUCK YEAH! Make it your BITCH!
Oh! Oh! So they are trying to retreat into a province you will take control of before they reach it?
FUCK YEAH! TAKE IT BITCH!
MACHINE GUN THEM ALL DOWN! Wave after wave of retreating enemy advancing into a province you just took control of!
LAUGH as they you slaughter those fuckers!
HAHAHAHAHAH!
Like that!
They raise their hand in surrender! Thousands of them! Division after division!
TOO BAD! Here's some pay back for sinking your convoys!
HAHAHAAHAH! DIE BITCHES! POUNDING YOUR ASS GOOD NOW! Unnghhh!
UNNGHHHH!
OH GOD!
HnnnGHHHHHHHH!
FUCK!
HnnnnnnnnnggggGGGGGHHHH! OH GOD FUCK! YEAH! FUCK! FUCK! OH GOD I AM FUCKING CUMMING!
...
....fuuuuccck.
Yeah.
Or look up some utube tutorial.

We just can't beat the soviets. And the Americans are going to eventually invade. It's doomed.

>>2093976
Start fortifying the ports and the Alps.

>>2093391
I did the same in my Italy campaign, worked for me.

>>2093505
jesus christ what is this post

>>2093997
and do what? lose slowly over 3-4 years? he has 108 manpower
>>2093976
your game is over if it's 1945 and that's the situation
your outliner looks very messy, you have way too few officers, and i think you've probably overbuilt infantry as italy
you could try invading turkey as a last desperate attempt to shake things up - the ai will overcomit to the theatre and since you should control the med it's relatively low risk
if you had a strong marine corps you could try to repeatedly trap divisions in crimea and encircle them but it's not easy vs the soviets

as any faction minor (and italy is basically a big minor i would sooner call china a major) you need to focus on special forces and armored divisions so you can do decisive actions while your major holds the line
italy struggles a lot with leadership and production licenses don't upgrade which means you have to sacrifice areas
imo you can use cas as nav in the med and channel which means you can forgo twin engine aircraft, even if tac and nav are great for you, and you don't need cv unless you intend to invade america (i see you have cags)
armor is a difficult investment but worth it and easily feasible if you blob a little bit
north africa is always easy
encirclements are the best way to damage the enemy

>>2093976
Invade the UK.
Yes. Its your only chance and worth any sacrifice to make the attempt. Its worth risking your entire Navy.
Forget everything else. Start building shit loads of convoys and transports. Consolidate your navy into sacrificial battle groups designed to protect the vital invasion force.. Use small low value battle groups as diversions. Make short hops around the coast, protecting your transports at all costs, with all the air power you can muster. Assemble your land forces in north east France. You will need at least one army of 4x corps comprised of 4x Brigade infantry divisions plus a few moto divisions. Transport them across the channel at the one sea province gap.( Le Havre-Dieppe iirc ) Prioritize taking ports once you land.
The losses will likely be horrendous. Bad enough to make your mother weep. But provided you can land those forces and keep them supplied for long enough they should be enough to take the UK.
And find God. You will need Him on your side.
>>2093997
This is crazy defeatist talk. This guy is obviously a Soviet agent.

>>2093976
You are playing hoi3.
This marks you as a superior person.
Even if you lose you have still won.

>>2094252
by 1945 it's already too late even if he capitulates the uk he wont be able to use british resources by the time the game ends
>4x corps comprised of 4x Brigade infantry divisions plus a few moto divisions.
would be enough in 1940 but not 1945 because the british ai does build armor and by now america should have some units sat there

Darkest hour has the perfect mix of economic and military complexity without wasting player time on econ builds and division designs that go the same way for almost every country like hoi3/4 plus the DH AI can actually attack. Haven't played AoD. The carrier issue already mentioned is a big issue that's endemic to all hoi2 based games, plus some areas of the DH map are really hard to fight in because of too few provinces and unit stacking. France being harder to defeat as Germany than the USSR has been a meme for a long time.

>>2094266
>Even if you lose you have still won.
The consenus in multiplayer was that if you can survive as the Axis until 1946 you basically won because that shouldn't be possible simply because of manpower.
>>2095015
HoI3 divisions literally have max 4-5 brigades. It is no more work than adding artillery brigades to divisions in DH.

>>2095048
>It is no more work than adding artillery brigades to divisions in DH
Brigades are usually not worth it in DH since you don't push with infantry even with air supremacy and you can never have enough infantry.
>HoI3 divisions literally have max 4-5 brigades
I'm only used to playing with HPP but HoI3 is even worse than HoI4 in terms of using the same division design for every country.

>>2093997
Clueless guy

>>2094135
Actual player advice

>>2094252
DH advice, still solid, just for a wrong fucking game

You can invade the UK in 1936 as Germany in Hoi3 btw. In nearly every Hoi3 thread an anon posts detailed posts on 1936 Sealion.

>>2095173
in hoi4 you can invade the UK in 1936 as fucking Thailand or whoever

>>2093976
Easy. Its still going to take the Russians ages to cap Germany. That means you only have to last another year and a half. The Western allies will never successfully amphib your mainland
Just pull back everything into Italy, convert all your infantry into mountain troops, 6 to 8 corps should do the trick, and free up manpower by disbanding the rest except for a few mobile divisions. Abandon northern Italy and just hold the hills and mountains north of Rome, supported by your BB fleets on either coast. As the Russians move in log bomb as much as you can until they bring overwhelming air power against you. By that time it will be late 1947. Then when the game ends you can claim a glorious defensive victory in the face of overwhelming odds.
That is if you are masochistic enough to play for another year and half when you have obviously already fucking lost.
The other viable option is to simply beg for mercy.
Here's what you do.
Dress up in the best girlie clothes you can find. Real short skirt, low cut blouse and all that frilly Japanese maid bullshit. Put on a wig and makeup so you look pretty. Practice tittering a lot. Watch some of those soft porn Kpop videos and learn their moves. Shave your legs and butt and act sluttish. Now present yourself to the Russians and offer you freshly bleached anus in return for peace.
They will accept. They are Russians.
After a few months of being ruthlessly ass fucked by hordes of Russian Untermensch they will get quite relaxed and comfortable around you. Make them some pirozhki, they love that shit, and they will let their guard down. That's when you act. KICK THEM IN DA BALLS! With hard pointy Italian police interrogation shoes. Keep kicking them HARD in da balls until they flee from Italy and the country is liberated of their vile stench.
Now I understand you might say this is not practical advice, but its just as valid as any of the other dipshit advice being offered by the drooling retards in this thread.

Playing Black Ice and I tried to inavde Norway. Didn't make it halfway there British had a carrier fleet that sunk all my shit and the french navy is lurking around. Darkest Hour and Hoi3 are fun. Arsenal of Democracy is just DH but worse, maybe it's better as a Multi-player game with the new supply and battle mechanics.

>>2095091
>HoI3 is even worse than HoI4 in terms of using the same division design for every country.
I disagree completely. The oob makes it far easier to keep track of your different groups and things like AT, TD, and AA are not universally useful. In HoI4 it's very annoying to tell what is what and the battleplan system redirects your units everywhere.
Combat width is multiples of 5 which creates arguments for using a mix of sizes.
Because of terrain bonuses there are good reasons to use larger divisions but if you use engineers then that's an entire slot dedicated to them which means binary divisions until you have superior firepower or specialist tank hunter corps instead of dispersed AT.
I like making TD but it's not a realistic investment for your entire army, unlike in HoI4.
While it is true that you will generally have a lot of triangular infantry divisions with artillery this is not universal and your divisions as Germany will be very different from your divisions as Italy or China. It's completely unlike HoI4 where there are meta templates everyone from Japan and Turkey to Brazil and the USSR uses and not least because leadership limits your research whereas in HoI4 nobody is limited.

>>2095216
t.HoI4 player

Darkest Hour is the only game where I've ran out of resources. Balls deep into Russia and the oil ran out. I've never heard of it happening in Hoi3.

>>2095604
>things like AT, TD, and AA are not universally useful
In HPP those are combined into a single unit and should be used universally for most major powers.

I have HOI IV from a sale but don't have HOI III. Are there any mods for IV that make it more in depth? I've played shit like WITW and John Tiller games so I'm not worried about complexity.

Best Chad hoi3 builds?
1x Gar
1x Para
1x Super Heavy Arm
1x Marine
( Chads only to reply to this post )

>>2095890
Hoi3 is cheaper than a packet of chips. You have no excuse not to play it.
Its simply astonishng that you could even bring yourself to play goy4 slop after playing JT or WITW. You should feel ashamed of yourself. Your only way to atone for the embarrassment you have caused is to rescue the desperate situation for Italy as seen here >>2093976
by following the "The Beg for Mercy" strategy given here >>2095216
Make no mistake. It will hurt. You might not be able to sit down for weeks. But at least you will redeem yourself, within the tranny community at least.
Which means retarded little arsefuckers like these guys
>>2095098
>>2095606
who are not only semi-literate but fucking stupid as well will welcome you into their little gay community for endless rounds of mutual cock sucking.
Good luck Comrade.

>>2093505

I took over France for the first time in Black Ice. Did not go that well but I won. How do I stop the ai from holding back my divisions by just attacking me? I would have won earlier but the French kept attacking my panzers so I couldn't move them. If I play again I'll go through Belgium more cause a lot of my shit got stuck in Luxembourg and Arlon from counter attacks. Kinda retarded they can kill my offensive by suicide charging into my lines. Also my planes got shredded, I don't think I built enough interceptors idk how to use air that well.

How many men did I lose? It was a slog.

Also yeah my air force got fucked cause the ai can seemingly spam and never die or take damage. I don't know what I'm doing with airforce.

Also how accurate do you make your OOB? In Black ice I put the right commander in the theater and army group but getting to the corp HQ I care less.

Also how tf am I going to Sea Lion. I'm not gonna cheese with paratroopers. My Navy is dead it got like all wiped out around Norway. I haven't even finished the Bismarck and Schanhourst, Tirpitz, ect. At least those didn't die. Maybe I'll build a fuck ton of Naval bombers and try and kill em. Anyway I have to actually beat the Soviets which is going to probably fail, so I have to think about the Endsieg. At least the Shitalians are looking competent.

>>2096765
Also see what I mean there's no way I'll run low on oil as Germany. I might as well build 50 Maus tanks, swimming in oil and fuel. Vanilla DH Germany was the only time oil ran out for me. Idk their should be resource scarcity of some kind. When Barbarosssa, the real test begins and I'll see the resource counter.

>>2096181
1x Gurkhas
1x Partisan
1x Motorised AA
1x Armoured Car

>>2095890
Last time I looked the best I could find were some AI fixes, but they didn't touch naval AI.
That's the most important thing to look for I think. More mechanics doesn't help if the AI can't use them competently.

>>2096181
1 INF
3 AA
1 ENG
The ultimate "come at me, bitch" that always takes people by surprise

>>2096827
Chad confirmed. There can be no doubt you have a big swinging dick
>>2096920
Absolutely Chad build. This guy fucks bitches all day every day.

>>2096792
Don't worry about sealion if you haven't prepared then you will never do it now.
Just beating the soviets is a huge accomplishment. You should have really cancelled your ships. If you still want to, naval bombers are fantastic and will devastate the rn plus you can cover them from land easily. Other bombers can run double duty as naval bombers too so check the stats.
>>2096765
>How do I stop the ai from holding back my divisions by just attacking
You're thinking about it wrong. The divisions attacking you are divisions you woule have had to attack instead. Them attacking you means that, while you can't move, you have a defensive advantage. Once they burn their org you can attack them immediately and they will instantly rout. If multiple provinces are attacking you and the volume of units is just too large to break then that means you should probe elsewhere, fall back, or just slog it out. Entrenchment also exists.
>>2096769
9 wings means a huge stacking penalty do not group your fighters like this. Maybe bice changes this but iirc it doesn't although that mod has been altered so much over the years. You want your wings in groups of 2-4 and tell them to intercept or superiority over areas/states. Personally, I find states much easier to prevent them overlapping and stacking to death. You can have 4 wings doing days in an area and 4 doing nights to give them both some time to repair etc. Intercept is generally the best mission but superiority helps with intel and can completely deny bombing whereas intercept is usually late unless you have great intel. When using cas always target single provinces and divisions because cas exists to snipe armor. Tac is more general but again you probably want to use it to break key provinces rather than just bomb whatever.
HoI4 pissed me off so much by changing how cas worked completely. Air units are units and you treat them as such in HoI3. Think of them as divisions you assign to fights directly just as you would armor.

>>2096181
Ha! I dont build divisions. I disband them all except one. I then use it to psychotically spam HQs.
10x Theater HQs
40x Army Groups HQs
160x Army HQs
800x Corps HQs.
Gaze upon my works and weep!

How tf do you improve relations in hoi3?

>>2097255
By having sex with them.
Go to the politics panel. Choose someone with big titties and assign them to the 'Seductive Bitch" position. Wait. After a few months you will see relations improve. Unless they are gay, in which case relations will decline rapidly. So then change out the big titty bitch for a raving faggot. If no gay candidate is available just select the "player controlled" option. Helps if start mincing around in your seat.

Or you know just maybe copy paste your question into google and the google AI will give you a full run down. Jesus Christ. Ever thought of doing that knucklehead?

>>2095216
>>2097335
disgusting, take your faggotry elsewhere, /fit/ sounds right up your alley

>>2097335
Suck my dick little jew bitch

>>2097405
Oh the poor little fag is crying because no one wants to hold his hand. Do you want anon to wank you off as well as play your game for you? I am sure this closet fag will >>2097382
Haha!

>>2097255
trade deals
ironically you want to sell to nations with which you have poor relations
spam small trade deals to build relations with who you want to buy from and then do your big deals

>>2096803
How did your Barbarossa go anon?

>>2096920
This, but unironically. AA past 42 gets crazy good stats.

>>2096792
>He thinks paras are good for SL
>He thinks SL requires navy
>I haven't even finished the Bismarck and Schanhourst, Tirpitz, ect
>build a fuck ton of Naval bombers
>I have to actually beat the Soviets which is going to probably fai
I'm getting very potent retard vibes here

I want to play HoI3 but the OoB scares me

>>2099527
>build a fuck ton of Naval bombers
Naval bombers are fantastic in hoi3 and DH as well. I don't know about hoi4.
>He thinks SL requires navy
It does you need at least enough of a navy to sacrifice while your transport ships disembark. You can probably just steal supplies from the UK once you take London so convoys aren't an issue but I would not want to be savescumming trying to land unmolested. Proper landing vessels help a lot as well.
Maybe there is some cheese involving Ireland I don't know about.
>I have to actually beat the Soviets which is going to probably fai
A lot of noobs die to the Soviets.
>He thinks paras are good for SL
>I haven't even finished the Bismarck and Schanhourst, Tirpitz, ect
These are silly though that is true
>>2099563
What is scary about it? You can automate leaders if you don't want to bother and while it isn't good it wont be worse than the ai.

>>2099807
Not that anon but probably the amount of levels in the OoB, that's what spooked me when i started

>>2099563
Yes, it is scary, best you stick with games suited to your level, like Twister, Charades and Hopscotch.
>>2100126
Yes, understanding elementary military organization is simply too much when playing a WW2 simulation.

Fucking retards. Lol.

>>2099807
Nigga, you just went full retard

>>2100157

>>2100126
Considering you only have 1-2 army groups as most nations I still don't see what is so intimidating.
Brigades and divisions are self explanatory and then it's just grouping divisions into corps and corps into armies. I completely agree that the bonuses are ridiculously obfuscated but it's a game from a time when you were expected to read the manual. They don't matter tremendously anyway and you start with an oob.
>>2100607
Go back faggot.

>>2093505
I tried your advice. My God, you were absolutely right! I got up all sneaky like behind the AI and then quickly pulled its panties down. All frilly black lace with a whiff of perfume and....uh, something else. Then I gave it a gentle shove, not much, but enough to send it toppling down. The AI was then helpless! Then its ass was mine. My, how it squealed and fought, but by that time I as deep in its ass!
I had stacks of infantry lined up along the front. When one attack succeeded I would send in another fresh wave. Leapfrogging forward in a mighty blaze of anal glory. Full strength and 100% organisation. It was the mother of all assfuckings. Then I overran retreating formations with some armored cars and cavalry, lol! What an assfucking! Who needs tanks?
But I admit my cock hit something of a roadblock later, when the AI pulled fresh units out of its bleeding ass and sent them against me. I mean like I still mowed them down but you know there was a delay. All that tedious maneuvering and encircling and waiting for shit to catch up. So many of them, but they had no coherent front line, so surrounded and ANALihilated in piece actions. Lol. If the silly AI had just put them all on the front line to start with I would probably never have broken through. But yeah, eventually I assfucked them into capitulation, thus proving I am a military genius ( and assfucker ) without compare.

>>2101089
Hey bro, just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy your posts

>>2101100
Don't encourage his gay fanfic you dick.

Why doesn't AoD get any love here