In praise of this mod

[Doctoxic]

Hi all

Just started my first try at HSR 2.05 and must say i am pretty impressed and have having a fun time.

I haven't read any of the change logs so my comments are purely based on observations from a few hours play (1936 as GER up to Vichy event). So if i have got anything wrong please let me know.

1) GRAPHICS
These are great! What more can i say.

2) COMBAT
This seems to last longer than vanilla HOI which makes use of reserves more important and effective (in normal HOI the combat is usually over before they arrive).

3) TECH TREE
A few changes here, mostly seems to relate to how 'brigades' work, more on that next.

4) NEW WAY OF WORKING FOR BRIGADES
I think this is the bit i have been most impressed with. There are some new brigade types:
Army Artillry : These attach to HQ's and give them big attack bonus's. This has the effect of making HQ's imprtant! Also it is now benificial to attach your good GEN and FM's to them which in my opinion is a good thing.
Heavy Brigades : These attach to infantry and give them bous's in all area's. The reason being you have to research Art/AA/AT to a certain level before you can build them
Elite units : You can now build SS units (brigades) which give lots of nice bonus's (particualy ORG/Moarale and even movement) - expensive though.
You also get all the usual brigades except ENG which are no longer available (unless there's a TECH that activates them that i haven't researched)

5) LEADERS
Wasn't sure about this at first but decided i like it as it cuts micro management a bit. Most leaders start ad LtGEN so less messing around with MajGen. Also now GEN's only have command of 6. Air leaders now have bigger command limits. Also all the leader traits have been changed ( as Germans your leaders seem to have a lot more traits than before).

6) EVENTS
Extra events but not too many. The things i thought was good was getting blueprints from certain events and the effects of war weariness by adding in extra dissent every few months if still at war (counterbalanced by dissent reductions for successes).

7) NAVY
Haven't tried any combat yet but one thing i did notice was that my level IV subs only have 2 ORG. Is this to stop them being used to attack surface fleets rather than convoy's which was historically there main role? I am now researching some naval doctrines to try and bost this.

Thanks modders for all your efforts

Doc

 

[Swindonia]

The sub organisation will stay at 2. Understand that is is to reduce the power of submarines to make the game alittle more realistic. They are still effective though in large numbers.

The AI is very agressive and will make landings in France at every chance, so an Atlantic Wall is a must.

Best of luck trying to take Britain if that is what you are planning. Britain have a number of divisions and coastal fortifications guarding the coasts. I tried doing an invasion using marines, paratroopers and had little success. Managed take Birmingham and Bristol, but Britain brought in massive reforcements and the landings stalled. The soviets attacked and it all went a little pear shaped

 

[Doctoxic]

Thanks Swindonia

Since my post the Brits landed 4 units in in France - i must say that this was not something i was expecting, luckily i had a Panzer Corps nearby and pushed them back into the sea

I am considering an invasion of the UK - gonna try a bombing campaign first and see what reults that gets me.

One thing i have also noticed is that air power seems to be much more effective, is that 1.3 or the mod?

Also, just came across my first annoyance. There is an event that lets you convert 3 INF into MOT but if so you lose any attachments. What is annoying is that a) you can't check whether the divisions specified have attachments, and b) if you reload and remove the brigades the next time the event fires the divisions are different. Does this event still work OK if divisions are in strategic deployment?

Doc

 

[Swindonia]

The air power is the 1.3 patch, although the enhancement released a few days may cure this? Not used it myself yet.

Not a great fan of brigades so losing them has never happend to me.

The dissent factor get's quite high as time goes on.

 

[Doctoxic]

Swindonia - why is it a house rule not to take military control of your alloes? Just curious as this is my normal tactic as it gives you loads of extra troops.

At present it is Feb 1941 and i have annexed Greece/Yug/Hun/Rom/Den and got the Vichy event (only playing on Norm/Norm with Hard Stoney). What with my Atlantic wall its looking like i don't have enough troops on the eatern front for Barborossa and my Manpower is already down to about 800

I think maybe i built too many brigade - those Heavy Brigades eat a lot of Manpower. Also, Partisans seem more active (is that the mod or 1.3?) and i have built an awful lot of Garrison troops.

For the first time ever i have even built militia to boost the Atlatic wall hehe

I have a feeling that the Russions are going to kick my ass back out of the motherland - great fun so far, much more challenging.

Thanks

Doc

 

[Thork]

great you like the mod..
but you should check the stonyroad forum..
especially this bugfix thread
where most/all your questions are answered..

edit:
about the house rules..
these are recommendations.. you may ignore them if you like.
but they all make sense (except not renaming your armys.. this isnt necessary anymore)
about military control:
it isnt realistic that you got full control of your allied armys..
best would be to include some diplomatic options to ask for support aso.
but thats just not in the game.
sure the ai doesnt use its armys as effective as the human player but to simulate this there are events in hsr which give extra units from minor allied nations like hungary to support the eastern front.

 

[Doctoxic]

Thanks Thork
I'll head on over to the forums tomorrow and have a read.

Cheers

Doc

 

[unmerged(51324)]

Hi all

Just started my first try at HSR 2.05 and must say i am pretty impressed and have having a fun time.

I haven't read any of the change logs so my comments are purely based on observations from a few hours play (1936 as GER up to Vichy event). So if i have got anything wrong please let me know.

1) GRAPHICS
These are great! What more can i say.

2) COMBAT
This seems to last longer than vanilla HOI which makes use of reserves more important and effective (in normal HOI the combat is usually over before they arrive).

3) TECH TREE
A few changes here, mostly seems to relate to how 'brigades' work, more on that next.

4) NEW WAY OF WORKING FOR BRIGADES
I think this is the bit i have been most impressed with. There are some new brigade types:
Army Artillry : These attach to HQ's and give them big attack bonus's. This has the effect of making HQ's imprtant! Also it is now benificial to attach your good GEN and FM's to them which in my opinion is a good thing.
Heavy Brigades : These attach to infantry and give them bous's in all area's. The reason being you have to research Art/AA/AT to a certain level before you can build them
Elite units : You can now build SS units (brigades) which give lots of nice bonus's (particualy ORG/Moarale and even movement) - expensive though.
You also get all the usual brigades except ENG which are no longer available (unless there's a TECH that activates them that i haven't researched)

5) LEADERS
Wasn't sure about this at first but decided i like it as it cuts micro management a bit. Most leaders start ad LtGEN so less messing around with MajGen. Also now GEN's only have command of 6. Air leaders now have bigger command limits. Also all the leader traits have been changed ( as Germans your leaders seem to have a lot more traits than before).

6) EVENTS
Extra events but not too many. The things i thought was good was getting blueprints from certain events and the effects of war weariness by adding in extra dissent every few months if still at war (counterbalanced by dissent reductions for successes).

7) NAVY
Haven't tried any combat yet but one thing i did notice was that my level IV subs only have 2 ORG. Is this to stop them being used to attack surface fleets rather than convoy's which was historically there main role? I am now researching some naval doctrines to try and bost this.

Thanks modders for all your efforts

Doc

With regard to modding stacking limits, how is that accomplished? Or, is that a house rule?
Also, if you are able to mod leaders to such a degree, are you able to make new leader types to go along with new unit types?

Thanks.

 

[Marchalk_Zjukov]

I like this mod to but I stop playing it because the AI for The USSR is f*cked up.

One could say that I should not be suprised becasuse its a german mod

 

[Thork]

I like this mod to but I stop playing it because the AI for The USSR is f*cked up.

One could say that I should not be suprised becasuse its a german mod

none of the 2 main developer is german... (Aregorn is close - Switzerland)
but youre right.. most work was done on germany but others are "catching up"..

i dont know why you think that the USSR ai is... ... bad...
maybe something went wrong in that game.. or maybe you havent played newer versions..

atm the USSR is still too weak. but they get a lot of units by events to compensate utill the ai is redone..
(i think it would be best (and allready most of the work) to improve ai-industry buildup.. but thats not that easy.)

 

[Marchalk_Zjukov]

none of the 2 main developer is german... (Aregorn is close - Switzerland)
but youre right.. most work was done on germany but others are "catching up"..

i dont know why you think that the USSR ai is... ... bad...
maybe something went wrong in that game.. or maybe you havent played newer versions..

atm the USSR is still too weak. but they get a lot of units by events to compensate utill the ai is redone..
(i think it would be best (and allready most of the work) to improve ai-industry buildup.. but thats not that easy.)

The thing is that The USSR NEVER EVER WIN!

It is something wrong if Germany 100 divs more then the USSR BEFORE Barbarossa!

No I will play vanillia HOI2 till they have fixed this stupid problem.

 

[LM+]

Also posted in the Stoney Road HSR general discussion forum:

The thing is that The USSR NEVER EVER WIN!

It is something wrong if Germany 100 divs more then the USSR BEFORE Barbarossa!

This issue does cause problems, true. With AI Germany generally victorious against AI Russia by 1942-43 in current HSR, one would think that Germany would be a much tougher opponent for a human-controlled Atlantic power.

Unfortunately, it isn't, in HSR - and also vanilla when Germany wins in the east, because the German AI keeps too many troops far east, and not nearly enough ready in Germany/France to wipe out an invasion from the west. Unless you deliberately save after landing in Europe, reload the game, and then halt your forces in place for a month to let the AI react, it is way too easy to blitz through Western Europe and ruin Germany.

Even with this house rule, European warfare is ridiculously fast-paced in both HSR and vanilla because movement in small, high-infrastructure provinces with level terrain against opposition is FAR too rapid. It's easy to slow down units - just tweak a number - but this makes wars in large, low-infrastructure, mountainous/swamp/jungle provinces a nightmare. Is there a way to turn off the organization penalty for moving? How about toning down the movement penalties for difficult terrain somewhat?

HSR's tweak to make battles longer should be pursued further. Single divisions ought to be able to perform a useful delaying role. Happened all the time in RL - armies insisted upon a continuous front line for good reason. Doesn't happen much in HOI, HSR or vanilla.

But the real problem may lie elsewhere: there is no simulation of delays in setting up supply transport to advancing troops in HOI2. Can't think of a good work-around, but hopefully some modder will...

----

Turning back to the specific problem of Germany getting shafted from the west: Fixing it properly will need to include stopping Russia going Stalinist Soviet after the Bitter Peace and re-declaring war on Germany (or having war declared upon it by Germany). Making it a puppet state and then cancelling that status might work.

 

[Evans]

I'm playing an HSR game as the Soviet Union, and let me tell you that this powerful German AI player is making the game very sketchy and a lot harder and more fun for me! I've been kicked around like historically happened... Wondering if I'll be able to hold Moscow, Leningrad AND Stalingrad... One might be lost

 

[Thork]

like i said.. improveable

but like evans said.. you should try human controlled ussr if you dont like to play germany..
ussr is really fun to build up and it opens up a possibility of (cold) war with us/gb and maybe france..

 

[unmerged(39735)]

Swindonia - why is it a house rule not to take military control of your alloes? Just curious as this is my normal tactic as it gives you loads of extra troops.

2 reasons actually.

One reason is that your allies and puppets get a production and resource BONUS at harder difficulty levels which means by puppeting everything in sight you have access to MUCH more production than you should if you're taking control of the troops of other countries in your alliance.

The other reason is that some of the minors have events that give you a roughly historical number of troops when certain wars kick off. For example Hungary, Romania, etc will give Germany a small number of troops when Barbarossa kicks off. This is a good compromise between getting nothing if you don't take control vs getting a grossly inflated number of troops if you do.

 

[Moltke]

HSR is a work of beauty! My only request is more attention to Japan. Germany is the jewel in the crown or whatever, but Japan is the favored challenging major and I would like to see more flavor/dilemma events as well as the same icon treatment as Stony Germany. I feel like there should be more risk as well as reward for conquering China than a measly 20 ICs and a handful of resources.

 

[unmerged(53040)]

about "the USSR is still too weak"(Thork)...
USSR weak - NO!!! USSR AI s%cks - YES!!! Historically Germany had larger army than USSR at the begining of Great Patriotic War(03:00 22 june 1941). A lot of rus divs were garnisons type. And our divs were concentrated far from border with Germany. The HoI\HSR divisions concentrates at the border with Germany. Not realistic...
Stalins "Purges" decrease Unit org too hard i think. And if Human player can increase org by developing modern land doctrines or by attaching to divs brigades, AI DON'T DO this!!! It even don't use HQ's when it's vitaly needed. AI only produsing "Eastern Hordes" and gaining stack penalties... Thats why its weak...
And at last AI DO NOT build defensive forts near Moscow and Leningrad(as historically was). Thats why German AI takes our capitals so easy. Guys! Disolve this problems and it will be much interesting to watch GERvsSOV struggle...
PS My english is far from perfect
PSS HSR is great even if it has some probs!!!

 

[Marchalk_Zjukov]

Stalins purges killed only 900 officers, the rest were sent in jaile and many were kicked becasue of corruption and incompitence, the weak Soviet ai ruins this otherwise good mod.

 

[mrsund]

One thing you could do is make an wishlist, post it here or at stonyroad and maybe something could be fixed.

 

[Marchalk_Zjukov]

Maybe I should do that, but im supprised they havent fixed this becasue they have too seen this problem in their test games.