Hearts of Iron 3 Collection

To begin with, I was a diehard HOI2 fan, having played every major power in the game, often many times. In HOI 3 so far I've played Germany several times now, with 25+ hours of game time in HOI 3 is basically the same concept, with a changed interface. First negative: no manual. Not in the case, not on the disk. I had to find it online. A small issue, but not a positive first impression. Paradox's on-line registration is impossibly buggy as well. Another bad first impression. FIRST THING BEFORE ACTUALLY PLAYING: get the hotkey list here http://www.hoi3wiki.com/Hotkeys There's a couple hotkeys regarding moving formations which radically affect the game playability, and they are left out of the manual. On to the game. It is prettier, and being a veteran HOI 2 player I only needed a couple references to the manual to handle the mechanics. The core concepts are the same, to it was just a matter of examining the interfaces and playing around a bit to sort them out. Adjusting the pop-up messages was the biggest chore, because like HOI2 the game will drown you in them. Unlike HOI 2, you cannot adjust it from the pop-ups themselves, but must wade through a clunky interface. POSITIVE: A much more immersive interface. Everything one of the control panels is improved, and you can automate things like trade so as to avoid the tedious business of hunting resources. Likewise diplomacy lets you influence counties until you tell it to stop, rather than having to keep an eye on the clock and manually do it as in HOI2. Research is much more interesting. Purchasing units/production is vastly better. The same money categories remain, but they include a button you can hit to assign the required minimum, which means you don't have to twitch the slider each time something changes (although the slider is still there). You build your divisions the way you want-German divisions can have four 'brigades', and you can assemble them any way you desire, so you could build a division of ant-tank guns if you wished. . Air combat is much improved. There's a separate interface which makes assigning your air units a breeze. Upgrading units is much improved. As the Germans you can now upgrade motorized to PG units, and similar changes. Political events are more demanding. For example I ended up facing the Danzig question in '39 (as the Germans) with an intact Czech state because I had not met the proper conditions. Its not complicated-you put your mouse on the issue and a pop-up shows you the requirements (I needed dissidence to be 1.0 or less). NEGATIVE: The province borders fade to invisible quite early. Make sure you're zoomed in enough to see them when planning attacks or defenses. TRICKY: They changed the ground unit system. You assemble divisions into Corps, Corps into Armies, Armies into Army Groups, and AGs into theaters. Its realistic, and fun in the pre-war years to build up units, and it is quick and easy to move units around. Two mouse clicks detaches & reassigns units. However, commands getting intermixed quickly wrecks everything. Make sure you get the hotkey list mentioned above so you can speedily unmix them. These commands are not in the manual. Combat can be played manually as in HOI2, or you can automate the higher HQs, give them their orders, and let them rip. I invaded Poland manually, and it was OK. For France I automated it, and it went a lot smoother, and despite my misgivings (I'm here to play, not automate) there were enough decisions and crisis management to keep me involved. A great feature about the automation is that you can assign air units (CAS is best) to ground formation HQs, and the AI will rebase the air units to best support that formation's mission. I recommend a mix of automation and manual commands, as you will need to watch the flanks better than the AI does. Expect to start over or go back to a save several times to get the nuances. But if you're a serious HOI player, this game is it.

This is an awesome game series and I wanted to catch up on it. I already own Hearts of Iron II and found it to be a great game so I was really looking forward to get into the new version. I was looking forward to playing the basic game and then add each of the add on as I gained experience. Unfortunately, this collection installs all of the items at once so that you can get an idea of how the first version of the game plays without the add-ons. I am still looking through three (3) online manuals printed out in order to understand why what is described in the original manual is not what I see when I look at the screen. Due to the above, I have not had a chance to get into any real long sessions on the game, but it does look promising. Other than what I just said, the game looks good and this is a good way to catch and be ready to install the next add-on.

If you like this kind of game that is. I've played numberless hours of all the HOI games and must say that this is the best. I do have fond memories of HOI2 and it did take a bit to get used to the new concepts, but this is indeed much better game. It's just alot more polished and detailed although there are still bugs in this latest compilation which is disheartening. It does crash alot and there are some idiotic events. Parlamentary scandal is my bane. Just an example. I played as Italy and had so many scandals I ran out of ministers. The only one left was Mussolini. I can't understand how a scandal can remove a minister in a dictatorship. Same thing happened when playing Germany. Every month I get parlamentary scandal. I do like the new research mechanics and the naval battles are more interesting. I was able to play this game without looking at the manual.

Excellent game for those who love true historical strategy games. Play is from brigade to global level. Detail can be overwhelming and you have to play it a number of times before you get a complete feel for the game, but this is a game you will enjoy playing multiple times. Only disappointment is the US player. Really hard to play the US starting on the earlier periods (you can start as early as 1936) without the game being entirely to one sided for the allies.

I found the game to be overly complicated, hard to learn and completely dissatisfying. I like to have the AI under the hood and just kill the enemy. Control of the pieces leaves a lot to be desired. If you liked Panzer General, you will not like this game.

i liked Hearts of Iron 2 and it was pretty intuitive to play. i quickly reviewed the read me file and manual and dove in, but i only played a short while before putting the game back in the box and in the drawer

good game, but not for the feint of heart. You have to be a detail oriented die hard war gamer not only to play this game but also in appreciate it as well....At least that's my felling about it. I also found the service timely and beyond my expectation.

This game spans all the macro facets of world war 2--economics, trade, every branch of the military, underground resistance, intelligence, battle tactics, battle strategies, leadership, etc., etc.. The only downer was that it ends Jan. 1, 1948--you want it to go on and on and on.