Worth getting?

[Totalheadache]

I.e Am getting hearts of Iron4 but is it worth playing this to learn the mechanics as it were?

[Vossie]

I never played HoI IV but I personally like HoI III with the expansions the most. It's pretty cheap on sites that sell steam keys. ( Not sure on the forum protocol about links )

Anyways if you never played any of the series it's going to take a while before you'll get the hang of it.

[TheBromgrev]

Based on the dev diaries and preview material shown so far, the controls and mechanics will be different. In HOI3 you can manually move units just like in a TW game or you can automate your army at any level you want. From the preview video, it's entirely AI-controlled in HOI4, where you draw a detailed battle plan on the map and the AI will try to execute it. The battle plan feature was purely a visual aid in HOI3.

As Vossie said, like most Paradox games HOI3 has a steep learning curve. Much steeper than CK2 or EU4, with a lot of hidden keyboard+mouse shortcuts that aren't documented anywhere.