| Graham H 2005-02-02, 6:38 pm |
| This is not intended as a complete review but includes impressions,
experiences and a "short" AAR.
I have previously played Europa Universalis twice before getting bored,
and Victoria in which I gave up a hopeless struggle at social
engineering. I also bought Hearts of Iron (1) but found it frustrating
to manage all the detail of convoy management etc. I was very doubtful
about HOI2, but a strategy game of the whole of WW2 cannot be passed up.
Reading a couple of AAR's on the Paradox forums convinced me to give it
a try.
Hearts of Iron 2 is a continuous time strategy game of World War 2. (I
hereby suggest "continuous time strategy" as a standard term - CTS).
The game encompasses all theatres, in fact the whole globe with all
countries and in the case of China and Spain all factions. The game
includes an great variety of production options for ground, air and sea
units plus stationary installations including factories, fortifications
and radar. The game also has an extensive technology tree for
researching developments in many military and industrial fields.
Research blueprints can be shared with allies or gained from defecting
scientists which reduces research time. Presumably this covers licensed
production and reverse engineering which still require the cost of
setting up a production line. I miss the option to buy ready made
equipment, but I suppose this is an acceptable compromise.
It is possible to play almost any single nation or group of allies. As
of writing I have only tried some of the many minor countries Italy,
Nationalist China and Canada. This is because I have wanted to get used
to the game mechanics without being overwhelmed.
The game runs in continuous time i.e. not turn based the clock ticks at
various speeds and can be paused. Orders can be given and production
attended too whilst the game is paused and the speed adjusted by
hotkeys. While originally sceptical I find the system works very well.
Movement is area based.
My main concern and the reason I have so far kept to minor countries has
been that the sheer number of units for countries like Germany and the
Soviet Union or the number of areas that need to be watched for a
country like the UK would be overwhelming. Having played four games
quick tries as Nat. China and Italy and two full games as Canada I feel
ready for a greater challenge.
Here is how my first game starting in 1936 as Canada went. As Canada
has limited resources I made some strategic decisions from the start. I
would build a small navy of destroyers and light cruisers to escort my
transports and conduct ASW and generally keep the sea lanes open. I
would concentrate my air effort on general fighters. I would not
research or build heavy cruisers or bigger ships, bombers (except some
naval bombers) nor specialist escort and interceptor fighters. On land
I would concentrate on motorized infantry and some airborne to enable me
to take non adjacent territories and islands. This is partly to counter
the fact that territory gained from allied areas falls under allied
control. I would build up my industries to support my production with a
goal to reach at least 40 factories which would give me a third research
slot. One + one for each twentieth factory.
Starting in 1936 I started building industry, did some naval research
and once I got to current models began production of some destroyers and
cruisers, in this I should have waited until later as unlike ground and
air units and ships cannot be upgraded.
Sept. 39
By the time the war started in Europe (Japan was at war with China) with
the German attack on Poland I had a group of about 5 CL and 4 DD in
Halifax. I immediately sent them on patrol of the waters off the coast
and made contact immediately with a group of German shipping raiders.
My group was badly mauled but came home bragging that they had sunk the
Bismarck! While this is of course not exactly historical it fits the
fact that the Germans had some raiders in place at the start of
hostilities. It is also a good illustration of the way that in HOI2 you
create history.
1940
By the time I was ready to get more involved in the war it was late
summer 1940. The war was moving on without me. France was lost and
Germany was looking east. Meanwhile Italy had joined the war against
France and Britain was making her pay in North Africa. I moved my
naval, air and ground forces to Tobruk and managed to grab a province in
Libya, but as mentioned above it became British.
I began looking around for somewhere I could make my mark. I became
aware of the pitiful appeals for help from the Albanians who had been
brutally conquered by Italy in 1939. The Italians had garrisoned poorly
so I decided to send in the boys. I set my naval bombers to drive the
Italian navy into port. Then a combined assault from sea and air made
short work of the Italian garrison. I flew in a couple of fighter
squadrons to protect my new acquisition from the Italian bombers and
other axis air units that were swarming around like bees. That was when
I noticed that I had a convoy problem.
I needed convoys to Albania to provide supplies. Also Albania was rich
in ”rare materials” which you never seem to get enough of, so we needed
a convoy to bring those back to Canada.
The system is supposed to handle convoys automatically and it does so,
but I hadn’t built enough convoy transports or escorts, and it seems if
you don’t have enough transports to completely cover a particular route
you can’t set up a partial convoy. Also you need separate transports to
send in supplies and retrieve raw materials, which seems a bit strange.
Luckily it doesn’t take to long to get a batch of transports through
production. Later I decided to liberate Albania and lo and behold
Albania could supply my troops locally, relieving my need for transports
for supply and eventually providing a division of two for defence of the
country, inadequate as it would turn out, but that is later.
At this time the Germans had not invaded Yugoslavia so Albania was
screened from the landward side.
1941-2
So Albania secured I looked around for somewhere else. Sardinia looked
like easy pickings, and it was. Soon I had a new air and naval base
from which to harass the Italians.
Encouraged I started to look at Sicily.. Looked a little bit more
difficult than Sardinia but I had 3 air divisions with transports and a
couple of motorised infantry so I was quite confident. Libya and Egypt
were full of British infantry and armour and I figured they would jump
in once I started the party.
I invaded the southernmost province of Sicily and it went quite well.
Then I noticed the two northern provinces started filling up and
realized that there must be effectively a ”land bridge” from mainland
Italy. The troops facing me weren’t just Italian either. It seems I
had brought myself to the attention of the Dark Lord himself. I
reinforced with all I had of infantry – a total of 5 divisions, but I
realized it probably wouldn’t be enough.
1942-3
I started looking around to see why the British were so uninterested.
To my surprise the army in Libya and Egypt was gone, only a few
garrisons remained. I had been so engrossed with my Italian ventures
that I had not noticed that Japan had invaded Indonesia and Burma and
had even landed an expeditionary force in Australia. They had not
involved the US which was still neutral.
That was where the British, Aus. and NZ had gone so I thought I better
put the C into ANZAC and do my bit.
I attempted a complete withdrawal from Sicily but I didn’t have enough
transports so I had to leave a rearguard. The AI is brutal in
situations like that and the moment my ships were out of port they
massacred the remaining division. No time to cry I move my army navy
and half my airforce to Singapore which was still holding out from the
Japanese.
My reconnaissance flights showed Sumatra had only a small garrison so I
quickly over came it and took over the whole island. I moved on to
liberate Java. My navy and naval bombers were fully occupied with
Japanese naval surface and submarine units.
The idea was to relieve the pressure on ”mainland” Australia and it
seemed to do the trick as no reinforcements arrived there and the
Aussies seemed to gradually get things under control.
1944
I extended my control over Borneo and Celebes. Then made the move north
to Taiwan. To relieve my growing convoy burden I liberated Indonesia.
I think it was about this time the US started getting involved. I
never saw much effort from them, but that may be part of the fog of war.
The US does not necessarily become a full ally even if they are at war
with the same countries as the Western Allies. When that happens
victory sites that they take become sort of neutral and you don’t see
their units.
Japan was very stretched in China, Indochina and Australia. I took
advantage of this to take Okinawa and invade Honshu (mainland Japan).
Honshu was quite a tough nut and the battles raged back and forth. I
eventually took all the provinces with Victory Points but the capital
moved to Hiroshima where he had about 8 divisions and my attacks were
rebuffed.
1945
I invaded Korea which was poorly defended from the sea. The bulk of the
Japanese forces were facing the Chinese and the Russian border. I
presume the emperor was feeling the pinch of having lost most of his
industry in Japan too.
Anyway I quickly took Korea and most of Manchuria and encouraged by my
experience with liberating and puppeting Albania and Indonesia I
liberated Korea. I moved the freed occupation forces back to Japan to
take Hiroshima hoping that I could get Japan to surrender, but no not yet.
1946
I took almost all of Manchuko/Manchuria and annexed the country. That
was when the US annexed what was left of Japan behind my back. Very
frustrating and it left me occupying the unfriendly home islands. To
make matters worse when I liberated Manchuria I was shocked to have it
annexed by the Soviet Union almost immediately.
Adding insult to injury they encouraged the formation of North Korea
which immediately declared war on the south. That I did not take
sitting down. As the fledgling North Korean state had no army to speak
of and the Soviets did not intervene I moved quickly north with an
airborne division and reunited the country.
1947
While all this was going on in the Pacific the Russians had made peace
with the Germans (in 1945) and the Germans had move forces back to
Europe and crushed the Yugoslavians, Greeks and my Albanian puppets.
So the Axis had the most victory points but I was happy with my efforts
and ready for the next war.
Conclusion
The game tries to simulate the industrial potential of the various
countries, it puts resources in various areas to create the economic
restraints that Germany and Japan laboured under. It then gives the
player the freedom to choose just about any country and do with it what
they will. You can intervene in Spain if you like, conquer south
America, build tanks and aircraft carriers or fortifications and
anti-tank guns.
It would probably be easy to pick holes in the economic simulation, or
point out inaccuracies in the research model or battle resolution.
Nevertheless as far as I can see the game works. It works over all
expectations. You probably cannot exactly replicate World War 2 with
it, but it is a fantastic toy to play out endless versions of alternate
histories and what ifs.
Well worth the time if you ask me - not my wife.
have fun
Graham H.
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