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Read intro here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=373235
The Korean side of things erupted on June 2nd of our alternate 2009.
The North Korean army started off by bumrushing the South Korean army. And by bumrush I mean commit mass suicide against the DMZ. This was not what I wanted. I planned on trying for a truce with the South Koreans shortly before the invasion of Japan happened, so that I could have Japan safely subjugated with the Koreas severely weakened and still locked in mutual hatred while I redeployed everything away from China for the final invasion of the USA. (I was not planning for, or even hoping for, a successful North Korean invasion.)
Unfortunately, I was busy invading Taiwan and planning for Poland when this happened, so I didn't pay enough attention to make this happen. I also don't have many screenshots. However, HOI2 includes a resource titled "manpower", which lets me paint a rough picture of what went on.
Each unit of manpower represents ~2000 men fit for military service. By seeing how much manpower a country has burned off, you can get a rough estimate of total combat casualties (dead + wounded + captured). I loaded up a May 25th savefile (the night before R-day) and a June 25th savefile (shortly before I handed South Korea over to North Korea for peaceful reunification; that's when South Korean MP gets added into North Korean figures) from the North Korean PoV to get a rough casualty estimate.
Here they are:
May 25
Before the attack on South Korea:
Land Divisions - ~510 MP* (this represents their nominal strength as determined by the number of divisions in their Army; see (*) for details)
Navy - ~6 MP
Air Force - ~20 MP
Divisions in Production - 40 MP
Spare MP in the population: 50 (guess this means North Korea mobilized all males between 18 and 60 or something)
*MP needed to reinforce: 0 (basically how much MP is needed to bring damaged divisions back up to full strength again; subtract this from their total MP)
Total MP: 510 + 6 + 20 + 50 + 40 - 0 = 626 or about 1.25 million men
June 25
After most major combat activity on the Korean peninsula is over
Land Divisions - ~350 MP* (this means they completely lost 20 whole divisions in the war)
Navy - <1 MP (every North Korean ship with the exception of 1 submarine was sunk)
Air Force - ~15 MP (most of this was based in NE China, having fled North Korean airfields in the first 12 hours of the war)
Divisions in Production - 0 MP
Spare MP in the population: 0
*MP needed to reinforce: 240
Total MP: 350 + 1 + 15 + 0 - 140 = 126 or about 252,000 men
So basically North Korea had nearly 1,000,000 killed, wounded, and/or captured in the space of 1 month. That works out to over 34000/day. And given that most of the North Korean army essentially stopped fighting and just ran for China/Russia after the first week, this means that the casualty rate for the first week was probably even higher.
For comparison, I looked at the South Korea numbers:
May 25
Land Divisions - ~350 MP*
Navy - ~10 MP
Air Force - ~30 MP
Divisions in Production - 50 MP
Spare MP in the population: 450
*MP needed to reinforce: 0
Total MP: 350 + 10 + 30 + 50 + 450 = 890 or about 1.78 million men.
Then I realized that the June 25 numbers would be meaningless given that by then China held everything except Jeju Island (a fraction of the MP of provinces under the control of an invader go to the invader's MP; the rest is not counted for anyone). So I looked at total MP available to Korea in August:
August 10, Total Korea
Land Divisions - ~350 MP
Navy - ~10 MP
Air Force - ~15 MP
Divisions in Production - 50 MP
Spare MP in the population: 520 (higher due to the number of demobilized SKorean divisions and released South and North Korean POWs)
*MP needed to reinforce: 200
Total MP: 350 + 10 + 15 + 50 + 520 - 200 = 760 or about 1.52 million men. Subtracting the 126 NK MP gives us 634 MP or about 1.27 million South Korean men, or net casualties of about 510,000. Most of these likely came against the Chinese Army, in the Battle of Seoul-Inchon.
Now in real life (and in the game) South Korea's total population is about 2x North Korea's. Why is NK's starting MP so much higher than it should be? It's because this mod did a neat trick.
In HOI2 you can choose general governmental policies. All governmental policies lie along a set of 7 sliders. One of the sliders goes between "Professional Army" and "Drafted Army".
![[image loading]](http://img.bhs4.com/c0/7/c07444422f6f5592e4737d8eb92b3272a7ba0497_large.jpg)
Should be under the text box below the cursor
In the vanilla game, shifting to a Drafted Army gets you cheaper, faster, production with worse unit exp/morale while a Professional Army gets you vice versa for both.
In the mod I'm playing, as you shift your sliders towards one extreme or the other, you also get two additional effects. First, your total manpower pool increases if you go Drafted, and vice versa for Professional. This is to demonstrate how fully you are tapping into your nation's manpower pool--are you only selecting athletic individuals between 18-25, for example, or are you recruiting anyone with a pulse? The second effect comes as your divisions get reinforced: being selective means that each replacement unit of manpower comes in with the "expected normal" morale and experience (presumably to reflect their physical condition matching peacetime recruits) while being totally drafted means that replacement manpower often drags the average morale and experience of your military way down.
One of the awesome things about China in this mod is that China is one of the few countries that can get away with a max Professional army and not feel low on manpower. As you can see in the picture below, I'm sitting on 3500 spare with over 1000 MP locked up in divisions, with another 200 MP in divisions under production.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mvdND.png)
Fuck yeah China.
This picture also neatly encapsulates what happened in the 2nd Korean war. North Korean divisions suffered horrific casualties, and retreated all the way to the Yalu, while at the same time, the Chinese Shenyang Military Region and its associated Group Armies crossed the Yalu as quickly as they could, before South Korean and American airpower shifted their attention from the retreating NK divisions.
Because I was pretty alarmed at the speed of the South Korean advance, I decided first to do a hasty landing at Busan with the entire Taiwan garrison, 8 divisions and two regiments, and putting some extra subs and strike bombers on patrol by Taiwan to sink any invasion force before it landed. The landing at Busan forced the South Korean army to hesistate and pull a few divisions back toward Seoul and Chunchon (those provinces were previously nearly empty.)
A sidenote: the reason I didn't land at Seoul at this moment was because I knew that the South Korean army would immediately hit that force with everything they had and push me back into the sea. I wanted to threaten Seoul but not so much they committed everything to kill me.
Then, the Shenyang Military Region and the 16th Group Army made a push into Wonsan, captured the city (and province around it). While that battle was happening, I loaded up the Jinan Military Region and the 28th Group Army into transports heading for Inchon, while also sending the East Sea Fleet up from Taiwan (temporarily) to assist.
The East Sea Fleet and the Shenyang Military Region air force contributed 6 carrier air wings, 12 squadrons of close air support aircraft, and 4 squadrons of tactical strike bombers. A squadron is ~18 aircraft, and each CAW is ~50-60, so that would be about 500-550 fighter-bombers and ~70 bombers working on the city round the clock. On top of that, I had the 8 squadrons of fighters flying air superiority missions over South Korea diverted to bombing as well, as well as the surface ships of the East Sea Fleet launching hundreds of cruise missiles into the city.
One of the key components to this air campaign was that my subs and South/North Sea Fleets were busy keeping the US and Japanese air forces occupied while they sank everything with a Japanese flag on it off Tokyo Harbor; the South Korean air force tried to help, but was vastly outnumbered.
As soon as the invasion fleet left harbor, the Shenyang MR was fully deployed in Kangwon province and ready to move. The fighters, bombers, CAS, and CAWs went to work on Seoul. I won't comment on the morality of bombing a city full of people, but it's not hard to envision the kind of carnage that close to 700 airplanes loaded with incendiaries and HE bombs can do to a modern city. Regardless, I am a little pissed that I had to kill e-Sports because my North Korean ally couldn't even keep its pants up.
The invasion fleet landed at the same time that the Shenyang MR hit the northern edge of the city. The battle raged for five straight days, during which the 8 divisions from Busan also advanced to Daegu and then joined in the fray.
At the end of the battle, the original 19 divisions holding Seoul had been reduced to 12 divisions, with 6 retreating to Chunsong, and 6 retreating to Gwangju. Thanks to the relentless bombardment and multidirectional attack, casualties for China were comparatively light. All Chinese divisions survived with over 50% combat strength.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BjM7U.png)
At this point, the war was essentially over for South Korea. 6 divisions were trapped at Hamhung, 21 trapped at Chunsong, and 7 at Gwangju; all under relentless bombing; all without fuel (since my subs were sinking every fuel convoy the US/Japan tried sending in); all running low of ammo and later food.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fBMag.png)
The Gwangju Pocket surrenders
Each pocket would surrender over the next few days, and I began to redeploy my forces away from Korea for renewed offensives in the European Front.
  
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I know it's just a game, but reading this did not exactly make me happy (as a korean).
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On October 07 2012 17:01 phosphorylation wrote:
I know it's just a game, but reading this did not exactly make me happy (as a korean).
and as someone who just failed a bio test reading your name made me feel sad as well 
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On October 07 2012 17:01 phosphorylation wrote:
I know it's just a game, but reading this did not exactly make me happy (as a korean).
Three things that might cheer you up:
1) The South Korean army actually did fairly well against North Korea--keeping up a better than 3 or 4:1 casualty ratio, and very nearly getting to the Chinese border.
2) I didn't target Seoul capriciously. China's army this game was highly mechanized (almost purely tanks, helicopters, and tracked APCs with very little wheeled or foot-borne infantry). The point of mechanized warfare is usually to bypass cities while encircling and destroying an enemy defensive line, since tanks usually suck in urban combat. You can't do any bypassing in Korea. (That was the other reason why I initially kept most of my stuff out of Korea altogether.) But if you want to dislocate the South Korean army, the only logical striking point is Seoul, since that's where all the roads cross. Every other striking point will get a mechanized army stuck in the Korean hills, where they sit there consuming precious fuel and slowly grinding against an enemy with a "home team" defensive bonus.
3) You can get the game for free online. Torrent "Hearts of Iron 2" and the "Doomsday" and "Armageddon" addon packs (~1.2 GB total), then get the 1.3b patch and the Modern Day 2 mod to enact your own ahistorical fantasies out on the rest of the world.
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As an Australian, I really hope You conquer Oceania. This blog is awesome.
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What's the point of keeping up appearances with nominal allies? A real emperor would conquer all for China; Korea, Russia, and Pakistan be damned!
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Heart of Iron is such a good game.
I really love HoI 3 but HoI 2 is so much better when you want to play a mod not focused on the big countries, or using something else than the classic WW2 timeline. :p
Since I'm totally not familiar with this mod, I have some questions :
1) Are most of the countries playable (you can compare to Kaiserreich - for darkest hour - if you know it, almost all countries are playable in this one) ?
2) Is this some sort of event-fest mod, or more like a sand-box modern warzone ?
As someone who loves those games, I can say the reading is interesting, as your tactical and strategical choices indeed ! Not attacking Seoul directly because of a full mechanical army is a good move a new player will probably fail to see. As strong as China is, it's never a good thing to have more frontline than necessary, especially when the supplies are taken in account.
Will you plan to release South Korea as an Independant State (while in your sphere of course) or can you offer those territories to North Korea and create a new state - aka Korea ? Can't wait to read the next ones !
On October 07 2012 22:10 Kraznaya wrote:
What's the point of keeping up appearances with nominal allies? A real emperor would conquer all for China; Korea, Russia, and Pakistan be damned!
In the Heart of Iron series (especially the second one, because of core provinces system), having allies/puppets is often a better move than being a warmonger. A country with all of his provinces as core as a puppet will often be a better support than just some more provinces to you. The non-core provinces can be more or less useless sometimes, if not for the ressources. But the supply system in the HoI is a bitch and you don't want to use your supply on a gigantic territory if you can dodge it. :p
In general, you go for annexing territories when :
- you have a core or an event on it.
- you badly need ressources and industrial capacity (but you'll have some malus on it nonetheless).
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How does hearts of iron deal with nuclear warfare? Official policy on Taiwan is opaque but I'm like 100% sure any major Chinese action against Japanese naval assets would result in at least a counter-force first strike if not even a counter-value strike by the USA.
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It seems like nuclear warfare is badly represented in this game.
Shady Sands said something like he could only produce 1 or 2 nukes per year or something like that. A nuke destroys the national dissent of the country nuked, all of the infrastructures in the province is set to 0%, and if units were on it... I guess you can imagine what happened to them !
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These blogs are such good reads.The line about killing eSports was pretty funny too :D
Please don't stop writing, Shady, these are massively entertaining!
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Easily best blogger on TL now in my book, love whenever anything by Shady Sands pops up in the side-bar.
How hard/easy is it to conquer the world with the US in this simulation?
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YOU HURT ESPORTS! Shame on you.
Loving it, hurry up and conquer the world so we can see it run red!
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On October 07 2012 17:16 Shady Sands wrote:
3) You can get the game for free online. Torrent "Hearts of Iron 2"
According to that logic everything should be free online 
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50114 Posts
obviously Flash and Reach were not part of this mod...otherwise you would have failed the moment you started up this game.
On October 07 2012 17:01 phosphorylation wrote:
I know it's just a game, but reading this did not exactly make me happy (as a korean).
now you know how I felt reading the previous part.
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Oh man, this sounds so awesome when one reads it.
I played all the Paradox strategies I could swallow (so, all except Victoria and HOI), and this makes me want to give HOI a go, but I know I'll just end up getting overwhelmed by the complexity and quitting in 30 minutes. =/
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Dang yeah, the complexity of all of this is just awesome :O
Can't wait for the part when you start attacking the US or something dang 
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Wow thats actualy just a fantastic read.
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is there any reason why you have 2015 and 2025 tech units in 2009 in a game that lasts until 2019
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On October 07 2012 22:14 Lysteria wrote:
1) Are most of the countries playable (you can compare to Kaiserreich - for darkest hour - if you know it, almost all countries are playable in this one) ?
Yep--every country is playable (although only around 1/2 or so have special events coded for them--basically only those countries will have a "storyline")
2) Is this some sort of event-fest mod, or more like a sand-box modern warzone ?
It's fairly event-driven from 2003-2009. After that, it gets into a sandbox with three sides:
China-Russia
Iran-Syria-Jordan-Egypt
US-NATO
As someone who loves those games, I can say the reading is interesting, as your tactical and strategical choices indeed ! Not attacking Seoul directly because of a full mechanical army is a good move a new player will probably fail to see. As strong as China is, it's never a good thing to have more frontline than necessary, especially when the supplies are taken in account.
This is quite true. The Chinese state is lucky to have the deepest population and the highest IC by 2009, but also suffers from severe supply efficiency penalties (reflecting the PLA's historically weak logistics focus). This is why I try to conduct only one strategic offensive at a time, and try to end things with encirclements and flanking maneuvers rather than long battles of attrition (which I will lose because I can't reinforce as fast as NATO).
Will you plan to release South Korea as an Independant State (while in your sphere of course) or can you offer those territories to North Korea and create a new state - aka Korea ? Can't wait to read the next ones !
Since North Korea counts South Korean provinces as "national provinces", when I annexed South Korea, all of it went straight to my North Korean ally.
Show nested quote +On October 07 2012 22:10 Kraznaya wrote:
What's the point of keeping up appearances with nominal allies? A real emperor would conquer all for China; Korea, Russia, and Pakistan be damned! In the Heart of Iron series (especially the second one, because of core provinces system), having allies/puppets is often a better move than being a warmonger. A country with all of his provinces as core as a puppet will often be a better support than just some more provinces to you. The non-core provinces can be more or less useless sometimes, if not for the ressources. But the supply system in the HoI is a bitch and you don't want to use your supply on a gigantic territory if you can dodge it. :p In general, you go for annexing territories when : - you have a core or an event on it. - you badly need ressources and industrial capacity (but you'll have some malus on it nonetheless).
This is quite true. Annexing a bunch of provinces that are not considered your "core national provinces" produces "partisan activity" in your non-core provinces. Partisan activity reduces your global supply efficiency and also has the risk to erupt into full-scale rebellions in the non-core provinces if you don't have troops garrisoned there. Finally, partisan activity also constantly eats at whatever garrisons you do have there, representing a constant drain on your manpower and industrial capacity... forever.
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On October 07 2012 22:44 Lysteria wrote:
It seems like nuclear warfare is badly represented in this game.
Shady Sands said something like he could only produce 1 or 2 nukes per year or something like that. A nuke destroys the national dissent of the country nuked, all of the infrastructures in the province is set to 0%, and if units were on it... I guess you can imagine what happened to them !
Nukes require a special event to trigger before anyone can launch them.
Basically, the event script says if the enemy country has more than 2/3 your national provinces, then every day, the nuclear yes/no event has an 90% chance of triggering. If you choose yes, then the enemy has the right to launch in retaliation as well; and if they choose yes then every country who is their enemy can launch as well, etc. etc.
Since all the nuclear powers are aligned with one of the major factions, any one country choosing to go nuclear usually results in a nukefest by all the powers within 2-3 hours of the initial strike. Then the game becomes much darker and grimmer--most countries are reduced to 1/3rd of their original population and IC, and armies are mutinying everywhere.
Some countries in this mod will never go nuclear, no matter what happens to them--China, the UK.
Others have a slight chance of nuking--Russia, the USA.
Moderate chance--France, India, Pakistan, Iran (if Iran gets nukes, which is very event-driven).
Batshit crazy--North Korea (that is the other reason why I was so anxious to keep them from getting overrun), Israel (the country who usually starts the Nuclear Armageddon by nuking Moscow--and it's always Moscow, no matter who is attacking--when anyone so much as touches Jerusalem or Tel Aviv).
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That's pretty interesting - not sure how realistic I think that is, but I guess it makes the mod much more interesting because the great powers can actually go to war with each other. Maybe it's more like a "what if the nuclear deterrent were much weaker, wouldn't war be way more interesting then" thing than an actual strategic simulation.
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On October 08 2012 07:12 strongandbig wrote:
That's pretty interesting - not sure how realistic I think that is, but I guess it makes the mod much more interesting because the great powers can actually go to war with each other. Maybe it's more like a "what if the nuclear deterrent were much weaker, wouldn't war be way more interesting then" thing than an actual strategic simulation.
Nuclear deterrent feels plenty strong when you lose your 5 biggest cities because Israel started launching for no good reason
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On October 08 2012 02:31 BLinD-RawR wrote:obviously Flash and Reach were not part of this mod...otherwise you would have failed the moment you started up this game. Show nested quote +On October 07 2012 17:01 phosphorylation wrote:
I know it's just a game, but reading this did not exactly make me happy (as a korean). now you know how I felt reading the previous part.
Well if it makes you feel any better, this is what will happen to Germany:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/w54Ns.png)
Double encirclement of the entire Bundeswehr and French Army... first at Berlin and then at the Rhine
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im pretty sure the reason why you're having such an easy time is due to having 2015 and 2025 tanks and infantry
how did you get those in 2009?
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On October 08 2012 08:43 Caller wrote:
im pretty sure the reason why you're having such an easy time is due to having 2015 and 2025 tanks and infantry
how did you get those in 2009?
Tech rushing like a madman. I disbanded 2/3rds of the Chinese army right at the start of scenario and immediately diverted all production to consumer goods, which gets me $, which gets me the ability to steal blueprints/tech faster
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On October 08 2012 07:20 Shady Sands wrote:Show nested quote +On October 08 2012 07:12 strongandbig wrote:
That's pretty interesting - not sure how realistic I think that is, but I guess it makes the mod much more interesting because the great powers can actually go to war with each other. Maybe it's more like a "what if the nuclear deterrent were much weaker, wouldn't war be way more interesting then" thing than an actual strategic simulation. Nuclear deterrent feels plenty strong when you lose your 5 biggest cities because Israel started launching for no good reason
I mean, if nations can't launch nukes in response to invasion of their allies but only to invasion of the state itself, then the whole "nuclear umbrella" concept is kind of pointless.
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On October 08 2012 08:45 Shady Sands wrote:Show nested quote +On October 08 2012 08:43 Caller wrote:
im pretty sure the reason why you're having such an easy time is due to having 2015 and 2025 tanks and infantry
how did you get those in 2009? Tech rushing like a madman. I disbanded 2/3rds of the Chinese army right at the start of scenario and immediately diverted all production to consumer goods, which gets me $, which gets me the ability to steal blueprints/tech faster
right but you cant steal the blueprints of things that people dont have yet, you'd need to steal from people that have 2015 and 2025 tanks/infantry... which is impossible in 2009.
tech beyond the present is just having good tech teams tempered by the fact that researching tech ahead of its time gives u massive tech penalties, so within game restraints it doesnt seem possible to me
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On October 08 2012 08:51 Caller wrote:Show nested quote +On October 08 2012 08:45 Shady Sands wrote:On October 08 2012 08:43 Caller wrote:
im pretty sure the reason why you're having such an easy time is due to having 2015 and 2025 tanks and infantry
how did you get those in 2009? Tech rushing like a madman. I disbanded 2/3rds of the Chinese army right at the start of scenario and immediately diverted all production to consumer goods, which gets me $, which gets me the ability to steal blueprints/tech faster right but you cant steal the blueprints of things that people dont have yet, you'd need to steal from people that have 2015 and 2025 tanks/infantry... which is impossible in 2009. tech beyond the present is just having good tech teams tempered by the fact that researching tech ahead of its time gives u massive tech penalties, so within game restraints it doesnt seem possible to me
Well actually the US starts the game with 2005 infantry and mechanized divisions--and from there it was simply spending 4 years researching to get to 2015 infantry
The 2025 units are only the spec ops brigade.
And yes, China has some pretty good tech teams--not nearly as good as the USA's, but 2nd best in the mod
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On October 08 2012 08:50 strongandbig wrote:Show nested quote +On October 08 2012 07:20 Shady Sands wrote:On October 08 2012 07:12 strongandbig wrote:
That's pretty interesting - not sure how realistic I think that is, but I guess it makes the mod much more interesting because the great powers can actually go to war with each other. Maybe it's more like a "what if the nuclear deterrent were much weaker, wouldn't war be way more interesting then" thing than an actual strategic simulation. Nuclear deterrent feels plenty strong when you lose your 5 biggest cities because Israel started launching for no good reason I mean, if nations can't launch nukes in response to invasion of their allies but only to invasion of the state itself, then the whole "nuclear umbrella" concept is kind of pointless.
Ah, yes it is. Although I kind of doubt, even today, that the sinking of one (or even multiple) USN carriers in the service of defending Japan or Taiwan would provoke a nuclear response from the US.
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On October 08 2012 01:39 elt wrote:
Easily best blogger on TL now in my book, love whenever anything by Shady Sands pops up in the side-bar.
How hard/easy is it to conquer the world with the US in this simulation?
Easy. Just don't attack Iran in 08, and focus on cracking China, then Russia, then Iran in 09, and you win.
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Are there any games similar to HOI that can be found free online? I'm really dying to try this game and other world/grand strategy games out that are military focused! I love this blog!
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I'll probably will give that mod a go this week, then !
And yeah, almost every HoI games/mod with the US as an entire nation is the easiest country to play or conquer the world. A lot of ressources, and supplies, good tech teams, decent manpower, pretty well isolated in america, but not when diplomacy comes up.
Only times when it can be tricky to play with the USA is when playing mods in alternative worlds (CSA still exists for some reason, huge rebellion in kaiserreich which lead to a split of the territory between 4 factions, ...), but I can't say it's a good country to begin with !
Jeez, i guess i'll try it tomorrow. 
On October 08 2012 11:33 NationInArms wrote:
Are there any games similar to HOI that can be found free online? I'm really dying to try this game and other world/grand strategy games out that are military focused! I love this blog!
Depth-based, I'm pretty sure HoI is the only choice you'll have.
The only other possibilities I have in mind atm are the old turn based wargames I played like 15 years ago at least !
Despite the fact you cannot at all have any influence on tactics in this game - tactics is about dice - the strategical and logistical actions are sooo deep. Well, supply gestion in HoI 2 aren't as realistic as they are in HoI 3 (that's not necessarly a bad point), but it's good nonetheless. Using your brain is almost always rewarding.
Just add some diplomacy, research, even cultural decision from time to time...
And the mods ! :p
Can't be bored since HoI 2 has like an infinity of mods, not only for HoI 2 vanilla, but for the two stand alone using HoI 2 - Darkest Hour and Armaggeddon. Iirc Shady is using Armaggeddon for his mod !
If you want to try out, Shady put a link in one of his blogs.
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On October 08 2012 12:16 Lysteria wrote:
If you want to try out, Shady put a link in one of his blogs.
Sorry I couldn't find the link, and can't find the mod on the paradox forums either and wiki link doesn't work...
I'd be grateful if someone could give me a link
Just reading this made me start playing again :D
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I guess it is this one, for the mod. For the game, I've probably missread tho.
Edit : I'm not sure if you can access the thread if you don't have the game added on your paradox account !
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Makes me want to do the same about my struggle in Close Combat series.
Chinese General: We'll send 1 mln soldiers down the left flank; 1 mln down the right. And, through the middle, the tanks 'll go.
Chinese General's Adjutant: BOTH?
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On October 08 2012 11:33 NationInArms wrote:
Are there any games similar to HOI that can be found free online? I'm really dying to try this game and other world/grand strategy games out that are military focused! I love this blog!
I don't think there is anything that is really similar to the paradox grand strategy games. And if there were, it would certainly not be free (legally). And considering that those are pretty niche games, you should really buy them if you like them.
Just wait till one of the HoI games is on sale somewhere, it happens quite often. The cheapest would probably be Darkest Hour, which is a standalone mod thingy for HoI2. I think i got it for 2.50 when it is on sale. As for HoI 2 or 3, it is usually worth it to get all of the available addons, too. Spritepacks...not so much. From my experience, it is usually safe to assume that almost all of the paradox grand strategy games will be at 75% off at least once every 6 month, and on every single steam summer/winter sale, too.
One thing that should be noted is that unmodded HoI plays in the second world war, since i am not sure if that was mentioned here already.
Depending on your preferences, you might like one of the other titles more, but since you said military focussed, it's probably HoI for you.
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On October 08 2012 03:06 Talin wrote:
Oh man, this sounds so awesome when one reads it.
I played all the Paradox strategies I could swallow (so, all except Victoria and HOI), and this makes me want to give HOI a go, but I know I'll just end up getting overwhelmed by the complexity and quitting in 30 minutes. =/
Just do it.
The Paradox games I still had to "crack" were Crusader Kings II and Victoria II, after playing the hell out of the former over the last couple of days I can definitely tell you that the HoI series is probably the easiest to get into out of all the stuff they made.
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Damn, I love HoI2, keep this up, it's a great read.
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![[image loading]](http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images2/destroy_old_world1.gif)
All I think of.
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How's Brazil and South America in general, in the middle of all this?
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Brazil seems playable, the country is on the recommended list, and they have a whole bunch of industrial capacities.
In my game, Argentina had some events with England, so I guess those are the two possible countries of south america, Brazil as number one of course ! I tried quickly Lithuania & Greece - I asked a friend to choose a country for me, what a mistake - and those are just so bad you can't do anything at all.
The fact is, at the beginning of the game, an event destroy almost 50% of your current IC (to simulate the economical progress of the country as time goes by), and until the war begins, you can recover from 25-30%. It should be hard to jump back with those states. :p
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On October 09 2012 19:30 Lysteria wrote:
Brazil seems playable, the country is on the recommended list, and they have a whole bunch of industrial capacities.
In my game, Argentina had some events with England, so I guess those are the two really playable countries of south america, Brazil as number one of course ! I tried quickly Lithuania & Greece - I asked a friend to choose a country for me, what a mistake - and those are just so bad you can't do anything at all.
yeah poor Argentina T_T
I actually tried helping Arg in this timeline--sent them ten obsolete destroyers and subs--all of them died within three days
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On October 09 2012 19:32 Shady Sands wrote:
I actually tried helping Arg in this timeline--sent them ten obsolete destroyers and subs--all of them died within three days
Speaking of your current game, I'm playing against China/Russia as Japan, and I must admit it's not as easy as I thought for you. You have to be really methodical, since with a lot of precautionous moves, I'm winning almost all battles since the beginning of the war, while being totally overwhelmed by the quantity of troups.
South Korea has the potential to beat, alone, North Korea, and push back China enough until reinforcements arrive (US, UK, India in the other side). I appreciate even more your AAR. :p
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On October 09 2012 19:41 Lysteria wrote:Show nested quote +On October 09 2012 19:32 Shady Sands wrote:
I actually tried helping Arg in this timeline--sent them ten obsolete destroyers and subs--all of them died within three days Speaking of your current game, I'm playing against China/Russia as Japan, and I must admit it's not as easy as I thought for you. You have to be really methodical, since with a lot of precautionous moves, I'm winning almost all battles since the beginning of the war, while being totally underwhelmed by the quantity of troups. South Korea has the potential to beat, alone, North Korea, and push back China enough until reinforcements arrive (US, UK, India in the other side). I appreciate even more your AAR. :p
:p
Yep. China's strength lies in its enormous IC growth and population (easily #1 in the world of both by 2008, if China player does nothing but IC spam, with some Hi-tech and Navy buildup tossed in).
Also, SK is a really tough nation to crack for China unless China can dominate the Japan/SK/US navies in the Sea of Japan, since so much of SK is dependent on convoys and trade routes to keep its oversized army supplied with oil
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Would you recommend HoI 2 or 3? And why?
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I answered that question in one of the other threads.
You can find that in this link.
I can be more precise if you are interested.
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EPT
