Hearts of Iron

Raver

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Well talking to a few of you EA regulars suggests to me that there is a high level of interest in Hearts of Iron (figures really). I thought I would post a few impressions here for people interested in the game as someone who saw huge potential in it and is a little disappointed.


First off - this game concept, mechanics, strategic depth, etc is WONDERFUL! I would say HOI has the potential to be the best thing since TOAW. BUT - the AI is simply not capable of coping with a game with this much strategic depth. In fact the AI is so poor as to make the game almost not worth playing in single player mode, or indeed in multiplayer without large numbers of human opponents taking various nations. Dunno whether future patches could sort this out enough to reverse this conclusion, but I am sadly doubtful.

Anyway, I just wanted to post my little opinion on this as I know there is significant interest among various of my EA opponents.
 

Mantis

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What version of the patch do you have?

Ya, I got this one too, as I was an EU fan, and Raver helped tweak my fancy with this title. But what a joke! Prior to the 1st patch, I was having a great time. Austria succumbed to my pressure, and joined the Axis, but the Czechs popped me the bird, so I invaded. When I was almost done the conquest, the Western Allies handed me a DoW.

Shocked (and quite impressed) I finished off the Czechs, and started making a mad dash for the French border. It was totally empty, (who thought they'd DoW me in '37?) and I had yet to build ANYTHING but subs. My strategy was simple, put it ALL into research, then after a couple years, switch over to some serious military production. Why build a mess of units that will cost an arm and a leg to upgrade? I'm making 3 or 4 infantry breakthroughs every so many months, so to hell with that!

The French took a province from me, which I quickly regained, and aside from a wee bit of fighting just NW of Switzerland, they did nothing. And I mean NOTHING. I watched French units that could have stomped me into the ground (17 divisions, anyone?) retreating like dogs from a SINGLE armor division. And these are shitty t38s or something...

I took 85% of France over with a single armor, while over 35+ divisions trooped themselves into a corner, where eventually I killed them. I took control of the Italian military, and just swamped Africa... Turned the damned thing off in disgust.

I'm gonna wait about half a year, and then try this again. I want patches from hell before I go back in and lose all enthusiasm with this game. If they can get it to work, it's probably the single most impressive AI I'll have ever seen. But falls FAR short so far.
 

Kraut

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yeah, the AI stinks. The UK DoW'ed me and all they did was sending their bombers... every six houres to exactly the same territory so all I needed to do was put all my fighters into that place and kill the RAF without even thinking any more about them. Overruning France was a pice of cake, too, than I've invested everything into land earfare research totaly ignoring the sea warfare and had my first Panthers in January 1941. But I lost interest before invading USSR and deleted the game from my HD, EA is a lot more fun.
 

Mantis

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Paradox is known for keeping at it til they get it right... I'm not willing to entirely give up on it yet. But it's a daunting task to get an AI to be able to deal with the sheer amount and variety of information...

Let's hope they can pull it off!
 

Raver

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Originally posted by Mantis
Paradox is known for keeping at it til they get it right... I'm not willing to entirely give up on it yet. But it's a daunting task to get an AI to be able to deal with the sheer amount and variety of information...

Let's hope they can pull it off!
I never thought I would say this, but I think the only way they're going to even get close is to let the AI 'cheat' - otherwise no AI is ever going to be able to respond the the full range of strategic threats that could arise in this game.
 

Mantis

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While I'm not a fan of cheating AIs, I'd much rather have a playable game where the AI cheats, than knowing it's playing straight up, but my cat can beat if after partaking of an ounce of Mexican Red catnip....
 
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