Hearts of Iron 3 - How To...

[Jack Ryan]

Love the game and have been learning new things about it each time I play.

I have one thing that I can't figure out for the life of me. How can I get the AI to do an invasion that is not land based?

I've always played as a European country but when I played as the US, I couldn't figure out how to tell my troops to prepare and execute a D-Day style invasion.

What am I missing? I am hoping that I do not have to manually set up a huge invasion force.

BTW, since I couldn't figure this out, I chose to take over all of North and South America and stay out of Europe all together... Another reason why this game is so fun.

 

[Genx87]

I got this game a couple of months ago. It is quite a bit more complicated than HOI2 and havent had time to sit down and learn the system.

 

[ayabe]

You have to assign the order at the theatre level, give them an objective, like Calais or whatever and assuming you have enough transports assigned to the command, it will execute, though this can often take a long time.

I haven't tried it on the latest patch, but before it was really terrible and almost impossible for the US to do this, it was manual or nothing.

 

[Jack Ryan]

You have to assign the order at the theatre level, give them an objective, like Calais or whatever and assuming you have enough transports assigned to the command, it will execute, though this can often take a long time.

I haven't tried it on the latest patch, but before it was really terrible and almost impossible for the US to do this, it was manual or nothing.

So, for the US lets say NY HQ is given the objective of Calais. If it has enough transports (maybe that is what I am missing, I expected the HQ to request transports to be built if it decided it needed them for the invasion) it will automatically load transports and ship them off to Calais?

I know that I set that objective at the NY HQ level, but I never saw anything happen so I wonder if the transport thing is my problem. I figured by setting that objective, the AI would figure out what it needed to get done and set the production accordingly.

 

[Genx87]

Is the NY HQ a theater command? Also can your transports make it across the ocean? Maybe the objective is impossible without taking, say Greenland or something closer?

I was actually thinking of trying to play this game strictly from a high level. Assign objectives and let the AI complete them while I conduct the economy.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Is the NY HQ a theater command? Also can your transports make it across the ocean? Maybe the objective is impossible without taking, say Greenland or something closer?

I was actually thinking of trying to play this game strictly from a high level. Assign objectives and let the AI complete them while I conduct the economy.

As far as I know, NY HQ is the theatre command, that is the highest level I can get to in the eastern part of the US. Good point about the transport distance, that might be a problem. Would it then be impossible to conduct d-day if the transports couldn't reach? Maybe access via the UK is necessary in that case.

Thanks, I will try a test tonight and invade Cuba by giving the highest HQ that objective and see what they do with that.

 

[ayabe]

So, for the US lets say NY HQ is given the objective of Calais. If it has enough transports (maybe that is what I am missing, I expected the HQ to request transports to be built if it decided it needed them for the invasion) it will automatically load transports and ship them off to Calais?

I know that I set that objective at the NY HQ level, but I never saw anything happen so I wonder if the transport thing is my problem. I figured by setting that objective, the AI would figure out what it needed to get done and set the production accordingly.

Yeah, look at what the theatre needs are, for transports you can't even be short 1 or else it won't happen.

Something else to watch out for, depending on how your fleets are arranged the AI might try to send just transports over there and they will get owned by the German Navy. What I did was rebase my destroyer groups to England and had them patrol the coast of France before I set my orders for the invasion, this way at least you'll have a chance against the u-boats.

The AI is supposedly better now, but prior to the last patch, even if the stars were aligned and the invasion started you soon ran into huge supply problems because the AI dumps tons of units in the invasion province, more than it can hope to supply, so unless you broke out immediately, your units are stuck there to waiting to starve unable to move or attack.

I stopped playing the US for this very reason, there wasn't really a way to get into the war without huge frustration. I've played a couple Germany games on the new patch and I like it, might be time to fire up the ol' USA again.

 

[Rebel44]

beta of 1.4 patch is now available in HGoI3 forum (Tech support subforum)

 

[datalink7]

There are currently quite a few problems with this game as is (one is the one you mentioned).

I'm waiting for another patch or two before really delving into this one.