Tips and tools for the bloody trade

[Altruist]

It has been years that I discovered that DH can show terrain AND wether together.
By sheer coincidence I discovered the perhaps most important setting last week!

Right-click on the date in the top-right-corner to magically enfold this menu:

All the more remarkable since all this years it was just a few lines below the weather on terrain line.
Without the full unit attribute and modifier infos there is no splendid cross where you can hover over... without the cross it is basically like playing in darkness:

Until last week I thought it a mod-thing.

 

[Altruist]

Perhaps I was already a bit sleepy when posting above stuff.
The intention, which I forgot to mention, was too curiously inquire what all stuff other players deem important features, tactics, strats of DH others might be not aware of or you have plainly missed (in plain sight)... interesting for beginners and veterans alike.

I only wanted to start it with the first post... to put the, ahem, embarrassment barrier really low.

 

[Levertov]

Wow, thanks for the tip about displaying weather and terrain. It's so annoying to have to change map filters to see one or the other!

My tip that may or may not be already well-known is to utilize the diplomatic option "Guarantee Independence," as it's an easy way around the peacetime IC limits. Usually, as the UK or France, your peactime IC completely cripples the ability to re-arm quickly. The solution is to go to war early.

If you guarantee the independence of Poland, nationalist China, and Albania (maybe Greece too) right at the start of the game, you essentially get to declare war on Japan/Italy for free whenever they invade those nations. In the case of Japan's war on China, you can remove your IC peacetime limits by mid- 1937. This will allow you to crush Germany in 1939 since you've had two years to build up.

What the guarantee independence button does is two things: first, allow you to declare war for ZERO dissent against the aggressor. So you get an early war with Japan, unlocking your 100+ IC, and then just ignore the war in Asia and focus on building your army to fight Germany. The second thing the guarantee independence action does is move your interventionsim slider every time that an aggressor attacks the nation you guaranteed. So you can max out Interventionism by 1940 or even 1939, allowing an early blitz of Italy and a second front with Germany before the invasion of Belgium. For democracies, more interventionsim = more strategies to choose from, and less railroaded gameplay. Suddenly it's fun to use your massive empire to crush everyone as the UK/France

Edit: I recently used this strategy to roll over Germany by January 1, 1941 as France, as Italy invaded Albania very early and allowed me to squash them and have a second front in Austria. Germany AI can't fight a three front war, and for a while even AI poland started pushing them back in Silesia. The strategy works

 

[TK3600]

Mobility doctrine is OP up til 1943. You are basically cheating if you swap to it.

Mobility doctrine is generally best doctrine for any country besides US.

Q: I am playing China with high manpower low IC, what about manpower doc...

A: mobility is still better.

Q: Japan gets pretty neat doctrine mid game, light infantry?

A: mobility still better. Not because light inf is bad, but you need your buffs as early as you can, you cant wait to mid game.

Q: soviet union mobility doctrine?

A: yes, but manpower doctrine is also fine. You enter war late, so mobility doctrine matter less.

Q: why US dont need mobility?

A: you enter war by 1942, and most of it is air and naval. By the time your land army matter, it is mid 1942 and mobility doctrine cease to be dominant.

 

[mleb2016]

Wow, thanks for the tip about displaying weather and terrain. It's so annoying to have to change map filters to see one or the other!

My tip that may or may not be already well-known is to utilize the diplomatic option "Guarantee Independence," as it's an easy way around the peacetime IC limits. Usually, as the UK or France, your peactime IC completely cripples the ability to re-arm quickly. The solution is to go to war early.

If you guarantee the independence of Poland, nationalist China, and Albania (maybe Greece too) right at the start of the game, you essentially get to declare war on Japan/Italy for free whenever they invade those nations. In the case of Japan's war on China, you can remove your IC peacetime limits by mid- 1937. This will allow you to crush Germany in 1939 since you've had two years to build up.

What the guarantee independence button does is two things: first, allow you to declare war for ZERO dissent against the aggressor. So you get an early war with Japan, unlocking your 100+ IC, and then just ignore the war in Asia and focus on building your army to fight Germany. The second thing the guarantee independence action does is move your interventionsim slider every time that an aggressor attacks the nation you guaranteed. So you can max out Interventionism by 1940 or even 1939, allowing an early blitz of Italy and a second front with Germany before the invasion of Belgium. For democracies, more interventionsim = more strategies to choose from, and less railroaded gameplay. Suddenly it's fun to use your massive empire to crush everyone as the UK/France

Edit: I recently used this strategy to roll over Germany by January 1, 1941 as France, as Italy invaded Albania very early and allowed me to squash them and have a second front in Austria. Germany AI can't fight a three front war, and for a while even AI poland started pushing them back in Silesia. The strategy works

Wow very interesting thanks for this info will definitely try.