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HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #6
What will 1942 bring the Republic of Spain? Nothing good I am sure of it. In hindsight, thinking about 1941, it may have been a mistake to pursue medium armor tech. Light armor could do the job, and to take out heavier tanks, teching-up the anti-tank guns and ant-tank tanks would probably be a far cheaper way to go. As a small power it isn’t good for me to spread the tech research too thin, but what’s done is done, so let’s get on with it! Read more…
HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #5
New Years celebrations in 1940 are muted. Fireworks, deemed entirely inappropriate, are replaced instead with the waving of small flags and the singing of patriotic songs expressing solidarity with the workers of the world. Read more…
HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #4
It occurs to me that now would be a good time to contemplate the civil war campaign and to draw out some lessons learned. After much scratching of my chin I’ve come to the following conclusions:
- Making big stack divisions is great and all but one then lacks the flexibility of having small divisions (say, 2 brigades) mopping up enemy territory and closing pockets behind the main force. Small divisions would also be able to destroy trapped and out of supply units without taking away the combat strength from the front lines. When the army reorganizes some corps will be ‘light’ and ready to perform mopping-up duties.
- My troops aren’t terribly mobile. It’s time to get armored ad motorized units researched and built ASAP.
- Air power is extremely powerful. The tactical bombers could turn an even fight into an easy victory within a couple of days. We definitely need more of them too!
What do you think? Thoughts welcome! Meanwhile, on with the adventure.
HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #3
February opens with the civil war raging, but by mid-February we had taken the Nationalist capital (their new capital is La Coruna in the North West) and effectively divided the Nationalist forces in two, with hopefully the Eastern group – where the former capital is, cut off from all supply.
A Nationalist counter-attack is held off with superior air power.
HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #2
The start of the civil war sees the Nationalists control most of north Spain, but the Republicans control most of the fleet and all the units deployed to Madrid. The Canary Islands are largely ours, as are our small African holdings, but the Mallorca Island group has gone Nationalist.
We have a big job ahead of us. We must reorganize the military command structure, assign generals and devise a plan!
Read more…
HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #1
Now that I’m 200 pages through various manuals, strategy guides, supplemental strategy guides, quick start guides and forum posts I’ve decided it’s time to write a Hearts of Iron 3 AAR. In this AAR I will be playing Spain from 1936 and taking them through the civil war and out the other side to join the glorious communist bloc! The Global Socialist Revolution has begun! Viva la Socialismo!
A Few Thoughts
I won’t be playing through this AAR with the aim of taking over the whole world – I find that sort of game story a bit tedious. Instead, I’ll be semi-roleplaying and trying to advance Spain, survive WW2 and join the Communist Bloc. That being said, I’m not going to be rushing into joining Comintern as soon as I’m able as that will result in a royal ass kicking from the Germans and Italians. Instead, I’ll play as opportunistically as possible. Read more…
Hears of Iron 3 – Italian 3 way!?
I recently picked up Hearts of Iron III on Steam for a good price and ever since then I’ve been pondering how to best play it multiplayer. A couple of buddies and I have considered an Axis game, or all starting in South America or something, but I’ve come up with a better plan: We all play as Italy.
Yes, you can have multiple people controlling the same country! So my plan is to have one person be the guy in charge of politics and production and the other two in charge of the Army and Navy respectively.
I think the level of angry in-fighting, complaining and general screaming at each other over Skype could very well provide an accurate simulation of Italian politics.
If you like this idea, let me know, and we’ll work something out in the not-too-distant future.
HoI3 Republican Spain AAR
CSL has started a Hearts of Iron 3 Spanish Republic AAR over on QuarterToThree.com. The AAR looks great so far, although I have reservations about HoI3 itself at this stage. I’ll write one too if I ever pick it up, but that won’t be for a few patches and possibly an expansion at this rate!
Hearts of Iron 3 demo and manual!
Great news! Hearts of Iron 3 has a demo out – and a huge manual. Best place to get the demo is from this Swedish games site with a nice, quick torrent and the manual is available from the HoI3 forum. If you’d prefer a more standard download, try queuing over here, and why not read the quick start guide while you wait!
Hearts of Iron 3 video presentations at GDC
A lot of people are looking forward to Hearts of Iron 3, which blends Paradox’s love of historical detail with the fun of a hell of a lot of war! If you’re interested in HOI3, or just love a good strategy game, head on over to GameReactor to watch two videos where HOI3 was presented to a journalist at the recent GDC conference. The Paradox staffer takes the journo through the early years of playing Norway including a campaign he undertakes to liberate Sweden!
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