Tips for newbies?

[LinkExe]

I recently bought this game, and it is really difficult for me to understand it, it is my first heart of iron, I have experience in other paradox games such as eu4, ck2 and vic 2, but this one is really very difficult for me to understand. I don't really know how the mechanics or the ic works . Big nations destroy me almost immediately, in almost all paradox games I like to play with small or defensive nations so I thought that here I could play France, Norway or Sweden in a normal way but I see that it is impossible. I don't even quite understand how to play with Germany. So I could use some tips to be able to play a game well from start to finish.

 

[son of liberty]

Welcome LinkExe. You have a fine selection of games, but Darkest Hour has little in common with any of them. For one thing, DH mainly concerns world war 2, there are mods that change that but vanilla is mainly WW2. You are dealing with a much shorter timeframe. May I ask if there are any specific questions you have? I am surprised you had trouble with Sweden in vanilla unless you attacked. If you just stuck to yourself and tried to learn how to build ic, infrastructure, troops, ships, etc.... You probably would have been left alone by the AI as Sweden is neutral. France and Norway are both a hard start if you are new. There are strategies to win, but if you remember WW2, Germany rolled over France very quickly.
Anyway, IC is your industry. You need it to build stuff. It has other functions too, but for now let's just understand that you build everything with IC. You build troops with ic. They need supplies; ammunition, spare parts, rifles, etc... all built with IC. As for the "mechanics", there is a guide and a pdf of the developers diaries saved inside the game.

My suggestion as someone completely new to the game is to either jump in with both feet as Germany and follow history most of the way; try not to lose lol. OR play as a country that will not be bothered. Brazil maybe. The only issue with Brazil is that if you attack your neighbors, eventually the USA will come calling. Read the guide as you play. Use your mouse to check things out. You can learn a lot from the tool tips. Follow your decisions as they come up. When you get stuck, come back and ask questions. This is generally a very helpful community who loves this game and will be happy to help you.

 

[son of liberty]

You also might want to read some AARs and see how other people play. You can find Darkest Hour AARs here

 

[LinkExe]

Welcome LinkExe. You have a fine selection of games, but Darkest Hour has little in common with any of them. For one thing, DH mainly concerns world war 2, there are mods that change that but vanilla is mainly WW2. You are dealing with a much shorter timeframe. May I ask if there are any specific questions you have? I am surprised you had trouble with Sweden in vanilla unless you attacked. If you just stuck to yourself and tried to learn how to build ic, infrastructure, troops, ships, etc.... You probably would have been left alone by the AI as Sweden is neutral. France and Norway are both a hard start if you are new. There are strategies to win, but if you remember WW2, Germany rolled over France very quickly.
Anyway, IC is your industry. You need it to build stuff. It has other functions too, but for now let's just understand that you build everything with IC. You build troops with ic. They need supplies; ammunition, spare parts, rifles, etc... all built with IC. As for the "mechanics", there is a guide and a pdf of the developers diaries saved inside the game.
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My suggestion as someone completely new to the game is to either jump in with both feet as Germany and follow history most of the way; try not to lose lol. OR play as a country that will not be bothered. Brazil maybe. The only issue with Brazil is that if you attack your neighbors, eventually the USA will come calling. Read the guide as you play. Use your mouse to check things out. You can learn a lot from the tool tips. Follow your decisions as they come up. When you get stuck, come back and ask questions. This is generally a very helpful community who loves this game and will be happy to help you.

Thank you that I will do, an for some reason as Sweden they went after me when Finished with Norway. But well I see that I will have to use more op nations to learn, as I said in paradox games I usually prefer nations that have it more complicated, but here it is a stronger challenge.

 

[LinkExe]

Also what's the better composition for army and mechanicals?

 

[son of liberty]

Also what's the better composition for army and mechanicals?

That depends on many factors. There is no one correct answer. If you ask 10 players, you will probably get 10 different answers. Doctrines, terrain, available leaders, available ic, available TC. All that and more contribute to the decision in one way or another. Japan will have different needs than Germany. Italy might wish to be another Germany, but they lack the IC and thus the TC to support an army heavy with armor. But even for Germany, there are different configurations favored by different players. This is one question you really need to figure for yourself. Try and see what works for you. Don't forget to add your air force into consideration when you are deciding.

 

[LinkExe]

That depends on many factors. There is no one correct answer. If you ask 10 players, you will probably get 10 different answers. Doctrines, terrain, available leaders, available ic, available TC. All that and more contribute to the decision in one way or another. Japan will have different needs than Germany. Italy might wish to be another Germany, but they lack the IC and thus the TC to support an army heavy with armor. But even for Germany, there are different configurations favored by different players. This is one question you really need to figure for yourself. Try and see what works for you. Don't forget to add your air force into consideration when you are deciding.

Ufff I see in the other paradox games you usually see an almost sacred army template, you only follow for example 4 infantry, 5 art and 1 cav and so the whole game, I'm very happy to see that it's more varied here. And I have always been passionate about everything that has to do with aircraft and air warfare, although later I will have to discover if it is so important to have compared to tanks or infantry.

 

[son of liberty]

Ufff I see in the other paradox games you usually see an almost sacred army template, you only follow for example 4 infantry, 5 art and 1 cav and so the whole game, I'm very happy to see that it's more varied here. And I have always been passionate about everything that has to do with aircraft and air warfare, although later I will have to discover if it is so important to have compared to tanks or infantry.

Another area of contention is air force and their use in warfare. Let me say that while every aircraft type has it's function and performs it's function well, not every type is necessary for every nation or situation. You will see and judge for yourself.

 

[LinkExe]

Another area of contention is air force and their use in warfare. Let me say that while every aircraft type has it's function and performs it's function well, not every type is necessary for every nation or situation. You will see and judge for yourself.

Sorry for asking so much but playing I had a doubt, do you know how I can see the manpower available in each province?

 

[Altruist]

Your new reading materials:

• Darkest Hour Manual (direct link to pdf)
• Dev Diaries (a list with links to almost all of them)
• Tables with all the data for units and brigades for DH (at Google docs from the developers but can be downloaded and is highly helpful)
• Reinforcements, Reorganization and Bases (HoI2 wiki, good part of it still valid for DH)

The last links to the old Heart of Iron 2 wiki which is nevertheless a rich source to get an understanding about the mechanics mainly also working in DH.
With no experience in any HoI games I strongly recommend to read the manual.

 

[Pandrea]

Also what's the better composition for army and mechanicals?

As much infantry as you can. Unfortunately, the game is much shallower than it looks. With any nation, you just overwhelm your enemies with infantry if you can get more of them.

 

[TK3600]

Ufff I see in the other paradox games you usually see an almost sacred army template, you only follow for example 4 infantry, 5 art and 1 cav and so the whole game, I'm very happy to see that it's more varied here. And I have always been passionate about everything that has to do with aircraft and air warfare, although later I will have to discover if it is so important to have compared to tanks or infantry.

You will see inf+art still the king here. Those are supplemented by MOT+AC. Once Mot breakthrough the gap, you strat deploy your inf+art doomstacks.

 

[TK3600]

Naval: spam HSUB+floatplane x30

Air is tiny bit complex:

interceptor is the king, so long as you dont need long range niche of fighter.

CAS is OP 1936 to 1941.

TAC is better once 1943 and up. Yes mobility doctrine accounted for.

 

[LinkExe]

Naval: spam HSUB+floatplane x30

Air is tiny bit complex:

interceptor is the king, so long as you dont need long range niche of fighter.

CAS is OP 1936 to 1941.

TAC is better once 1943 and up. Yes mobility doctrine accounted for.

I'm a little confused, how should I group my soldiers I saw that many say that the limit is 9, so I should give a single general 9 infantry units? And apart from what is the hq for, in my departure from Germany by default I get one with 10 divisions but it comes out in red like 10/9 even though I have a general in the hq

 

[son of liberty]

HQs allow generals to command 2x the amount of troops in a single province and adjacent provinces for the purposes of attacking. With or without HQ, a mjgen can DIRECTLY command 3 divs, lt Gen 6, Gen 9, and FM 12. Let's say you are in a province attacking another adjacent province with a FM in command. 1 province to 1 province with no HQ,the FM could effectively command 12 divs. If a province adjacent to him can also attack then the FM could command 24 divs. Etc.... with an hq under a general or the field marshal the number of divisions that can attack without an over command limit penalty is doubled. So, two provinces allow 24/province now 48 divisions etc... Understand?

 

[son of liberty]

Naval: spam HSUB+floatplane x30

Air is tiny bit complex:

interceptor is the king, so long as you dont need long range niche of fighter.

CAS is OP 1936 to 1941.

TAC is better once 1943 and up. Yes mobility doctrine accounted for.

30 subs vs ai is pretty gamey against AI. It will not work well vs a human player.

Interceptors are "king" for air superiority purposes but can still be defeated by fighters under certain conditions. Read the manual.

CAS is not OP but it is very deadly under the right conditions. It is next to useless vs dug in troops and even more so vs dug in troops in forts. Again, read your manual

TAC is just fine for it's purposes at almost all levels. TAC is not CAS, don't expect it to perform CAS missions as well as dedicated CAS planes as well. Same for NAVs and STRATs. TAC can do all of the missions but it is fairly mediocre when compared to dedicated craft performing their specialized missions. Read your manual.

 

[LinkExe]

HQs allow generals to command 2x the amount of troops in a single province and adjacent provinces for the purposes of attacking. With or without HQ, a mjgen can DIRECTLY command 3 divs, lt Gen 6, Gen 9, and FM 12. Let's say you are in a province attacking another adjacent province with a FM in command. 1 province to 1 province with no HQ,the FM could effectively command 12 divs. If a province adjacent to him can also attack then the FM could command 24 divs. Etc.... with an hq under a general or the field marshal the number of divisions that can attack without an over command limit penalty is doubled. So, two provinces allow 24/province now 48 divisions etc... Understand?

Wait, then, can he command without the hq the max of divisions in a province + the ones he has next to him?

 

[Altruist]

Wait, then, can he command without the hq the max of divisions in a province + the ones he has next to him?

DH manual, page 100 and following, especially page 103.

I am really helpful answering questions... from on a certain level.

 

[TK3600]

30 subs vs ai is pretty gamey against AI. It will not work well vs a human player.

Interceptors are "king" for air superiority purposes but can still be defeated by fighters under certain conditions. Read the manual.

CAS is not OP but it is very deadly under the right conditions. It is next to useless vs dug in troops and even more so vs dug in troops in forts. Again, read your manual

TAC is just fine for it's purposes at almost all levels. TAC is not CAS, don't expect it to perform CAS missions as well as dedicated CAS planes as well. Same for NAVs and STRATs. TAC can do all of the missions but it is fairly mediocre when compared to dedicated craft performing their specialized missions. Read your manual.

HSUB stacks are banned in MP for a reason. Needlessly to say it works well enough on humans.

CAS is OP as in relatively to TAC of the early variant. CAS 1937 deals 5 soft attack. TAC do like 3. The damage of CAS dont get much higher later, but TAC will eventually out damage CAS.

You might argue range. My reply is yes that is one exception, but otherwise early CAS is significantly stronger unless you fight in a low airport place. This edge fall off later on, to the point TAC is always prefered.

STRAT deserve its own thread.

NAV is very OP for its job. Dont think TAC can do it nearly as well. A jet bomber cannot out damage a NAV 1924.

 

[TK3600]

I'm a little confused, how should I group my soldiers I saw that many say that the limit is 9, so I should give a single general 9 infantry units? And apart from what is the hq for, in my departure from Germany by default I get one with 10 divisions but it comes out in red like 10/9 even though I have a general in the hq

Generally speaking I organize mine in command limit of most suitable generals.

Shitty general/FM gets a single HQ stack for passive buff.

Good General/FM gets its full stack size where biggest battles go.

When to go under command limit:
1. You are in shitty part of Africa where you see many undefended tiles, 1 or 2 enemy only.
2. You split your motorized for fast land grab post breakthrough.