my questions to experienced players

[mariuss]

Hello, i am former HoI 3 player who decided to try AoD+IC and i have a lot of fun. For now i have played one game with Germany to 1943. However there are some things i don`t understand:
1. Is it possible to do something useful with convoy raiding? i have been sinking allies ships since the start of the war every few seconds, but GB always has about 200-300 convoys available.
2. If i load any other major nation i see that their research efficiency is about 170-190%. for myself i manage to keep it just at 100-120% even when avoiding industry techs for as long as they are REALLY needed. Am i doing something wrong or ai has advantages against human?
3. When choosing research team for some tech is it better to have tech team with slightly better skill (9 for example), but with less matching blue boxes (2 for example), or lower skill (8), but 3 or 4 matches?
4. Just how helpful blueprint is?
5. When i try to invade garrisoned port, my transport ships simply turn back to home port. Do i need some techs or marines to do that?
6. How do you manage to deal with USA? At HoI3 they usually do nothing, but this game is extreme opposite. They joined war at about 1941 and since then they are assaulting me all over the map and i can not see how it is possible to contain them with their massive manpower, ic and naval supremacy. i won barbarosa, i have air supremacy over GB, GB is out of manpower, Italy has all Africa, i am pushing to India and Gibraltar is occupied, but i am really struggling to counter massive USA invasions. i can destroy invaders, but after a month or so they comeback with much more. Also Japan is losing hard.

 

[Saberger]

Hello, i am former HoI 3 player who decided to try AoD+IC and i have a lot of fun. For now i have played one game with Germany to 1943. However there are some things i don`t understand:
1. Is it possible to do something useful with convoy raiding? i have been sinking allies ships since the start of the war every few seconds, but GB always has about 200-300 convoys available.
2. If i load any other major nation i see that their research efficiency is about 170-190%. for myself i manage to keep it just at 100-120% even when avoiding industry techs for as long as they are REALLY needed. Am i doing something wrong or ai has advantages against human?
3. When choosing research team for some tech is it better to have tech team with slightly better skill (9 for example), but with less matching blue boxes (2 for example), or lower skill (8), but 3 or 4 matches?
4. Just how helpful blueprint is?
5. When i try to invade garrisoned port, my transport ships simply turn back to home port. Do i need some techs or marines to do that?
6. How do you manage to deal with USA? At HoI3 they usually do nothing, but this game is extreme opposite. They joined war at about 1941 and since then they are assaulting me all over the map and i can not see how it is possible to contain them with their massive manpower, ic and naval supremacy. i won barbarosa, i have air supremacy over GB, GB is out of manpower, Italy has all Africa, i am pushing to India and Gibraltar is occupied, but i am really struggling to counter massive USA invasions. i can destroy invaders, but after a month or so they comeback with much more. Also Japan is losing hard.

1.No, if you play against AI. Yes, if you play against human. It is clearly to see that if you play as Japan, and you don't protect your convoy route, you will soon come to have 0 convoys and 0 transports, which means you could not trade or sending supply to troops. I think the Ai has advantages in creating convoys, they do not bound to have a need for that many convoys to begin with, and another thing is the AI doesn't have the limit in IC so they has the ability to create convoys faster than you think, which means you destroy 10 convoys of them and they will replace with 10 more
2.This is the advantage that Ai also has, it also affected by your choice about Ai difficulty at the begining of the game. The first time i play as German, i can not match the SU in technology for the first time in my life playing HOi and its variations, eventhogh we both have the same amounts of industial tech, but that is what make the game more enjoyable.
3. In my opinion, having a tech team which match as many as neccessary skill as possible is one way to research tech faster. Your example seemed off, as i think even with the tech team has skill 9 but only 1 blue box, and the tech team has skill 6 with 4 blue boxes, i choose the 6 one. But the thing is, it also depends on how you play, sometimes, you want to decrease your spped of technology advance (such as playing Germany, near 1944-1945, and only a handful slumps of oil)
4. Blueprint increase your research speed twice as normal, and besid5e, you have free research speed, so why not use it?
5. No, there are two main reasons:
_ your transports don't have enough suppies to attack, watch the orange which indicates the supply condition of the ship
_ your transport don't have maximum strength or the neccessary org needed to lauch an amphibious assault, that is the most important reason, you shpuld at least wait for it to be max strength and max orrg, then theere will be no problems
6. Well, i don't know how you played, but my games all went like this( if i play as Ger)
_Do not create Slovakia, cede all the land of the rest Cechslovakia for Hungary, make them stronger than normal, use the ability to force your ally to concentrate on a specific task in iC to make them focus on land, use their armies to protect the coast, this can be further strengthen by armies of Rom, Bul, or even NatSpain ( if you succeed invite Spain to Axis, that is)
_Sometime, it is better to let the enemies land on your beach, and use all your available forces to throw them out. This will decrease their forces and gain you some free times to further strengthen your coast by building coastal forts. Just let one beach( you can choose Caen to make it historically) which has the least troops to defend ( but i recommend choose somewhere near Wilhemstafen-as you need to cooperate the Kiegsmarine to stop their TP to take their troops back home), and the AI will automatically attack in that province. Let them in, then use every panzer or panzergrenadier divisions that you can spare for Western Theatre to attack them( so it will be the best if you choose somewhere which has plain terrain), use every ships( sub, CL are the best for this, even naval bombers- if you have them) to block the retreat route from the beach, but remember, you needa force which has the best mobility and speed, so no art or anti-tank or even infantry. If play against human , do not support attack from the neighhbor province, as the human will amphibious assault those provinces and you will have a hard time to throw all of them out. It is important to only just let they land on one beach to concentrate firepower on it
_Don't spend time to care for Japan, they will lose in the end,(if human play Japan, it will be a different story), you said you push for India, then you can just take the whole India, and watch Japan crumbles
_This is an exploit tactic, it is not historic, but if you find that despite doing every thing you can , USA still succeed in D-Day, then when you play again, after the fall of France, create Flander and Wallonia, they wil provide fresh troops(about 40 divs for the whole game- if i remember correctly) for defending the coast
Have fun

 

[unmerged(157031)]

With regards to your last question (as all others have been answered), you have to remember that each game is different; much more so than in other HoI 2 games or HoI3. Sometimes I have games where the US will invade in '41, others where they won't budge for the full course of the war. Still, it is best to prepare for the possible invasion by America simply having enough units to cover your ambitions. About 200 infantry units, 20 tanks and 30 mot inf is all you really need to win the war; any more is overkill. 200 infantry gives you enough units to defend the coast with corps (groups of 3 inf divs) while also having more than enough to deal with the Soviets. The tanks can work well as spearheads as individual divisions, as can mot inf when defending the rear of the spearhead from being cut off. Hell, I usually even have enough tanks to leave a couple behind in case of an invasion! Invade Russia in the summer of '40 and you should be able to beat them before the winter rolls around. Use the IC from the conquest of Europe to prepare a large navy with an ample amount of marines, then invade the US before they invade you!

 

[flowerpunkt]

"3. When choosing research team for some tech is it better to have tech team with slightly better skill (9 for example), but with less matching blue boxes (2 for example), or lower skill (8), but 3 or 4 matches?"

Depends of tech I think. I choose lower skill with more matches at early stages of game...as game proceed more advanced techs require higher skills...so I choose higher skill with less matches.

"5. When i try to invade garrisoned port, my transport ships simply turn back to home port. Do i need some techs or marines to do that?"

Motly because of low organization. However you can choose by yourself if its allright to attack with less than 50% org..it might be useful in some situations.

"6. How do you manage to deal with USA?"

Mobile defense, less units for Barbarossa (20-30). I prefer less inf and more mobility but you have to be very carefull with oil.
In my first game I didnt pay attention to US invasion in Spain and after half year they landed with 220 divisons.

 

[Kelben]

5 / Not obviously because of low org but set the mission to stop only if you reach 5% organization is a good idea.

Additionally, I suspect they go back because of lack of supplies. In AoD troops in TP consume their supply from the fleet they board in. Thus escort your TP with other ships (a few CA/CL/DD should be enough) to increase the amount of supply of the fleet and make the one consumed by the units doing a landing assault become neglectful.