Hearts of Iron II or III?

**Akira112** · October 10, 2009, 01:18 AM

I've never played a Hearts of Iron game before but I'm really interested in getting one after playing EU3, the thing is, I've heard that HOI3 is unplayable and all this stuff about buggy events and Stalingrand being in the Causcaus

, while I've only heard good things about HOI2. So is it worth getting HOI2 + expansions now and HOI3 later, or do you reckon that HOI3 will become playable in the near future so getting HOI2 now isn't worth it?

**Santini** · October 10, 2009, 01:49 AM

HoI 2 armageddon is hella good... if you go to stonyroad.de

**NONOPUST** · October 10, 2009, 01:59 AM

Never played HOI2, but am playing HOI3. Imo it's a good game albeit needing a little bit of polish(within a month a big patch is coming). It's not as bad as everyone says. Up to you of course.

**Akira112** · October 10, 2009, 02:26 AM

Big patch within a month? Hmmmm I'm still playing EU3 right now so I can guess I can wait. Are there any major gameplay or timeline differences between the two?

**DaLeGiOnArY** · October 10, 2009, 05:26 AM

3 looks better and is more accessible but 2 has way more depth

**Town Watch** · October 10, 2009, 05:58 AM

hearts of iron doomsday + armageddon expansion pack was a very good game I think, and there are lots of mods for that game, I would recommend buying it since it's not that expensive.

In any case, if you decide not to buy the normal doomsday + armageddon, then I would recommend waiting for a while, until Paradox interactive releases the "arsenal of democracy" Hearts of Iron game.

It was made by some former HoI2 modders who got a license from P-dox interactive to the hearts of iron 2 game engine. It's basically a buffed up version of hearts of iron doomsday + armageddon with lots of new gameplay features that were unavailable for modders in the past. However I suspect that there isn't going to be any mod compatibility with THAT game, and no one is probably going to do any mods for that game either, everyone's playing/modding HoI3 now.

Ultimately it's up to you of course, how you're gonna spend your money, but I would definitely buy the normal HoI doomsday+ armageddon just because of the excellent mods that were done for that game.

HoI3, as far as I know (haven't touched that game for a while), is still in a very buggy state at the moment. There's the weather bug for instance, its raining all the time in the sea provinces which makes it impossible to use carriers in the game at the moment.

A.I. is pretty stupid all around in any case, Soviet Union in A.I. hands is incredibly weak, A.I doesn't defend it's borders most of the time, and doesn't use strategical reserve forces/second lines of defence either, and does crazy stuff, A.I doesn't mobilize properly which means it fights for ages with weak reserve units etc... The laws that provide bonuses once enacted are also pretty botched at the moment, soviet union has massive officer shortages and it cannot enact any kind of draft laws in time for the german invasion.

There's also no incentive to use volunteer army law for example, all the laws simply proceed from the worst to the best, with the democracies having the worst laws in the beginning and slowly get towards the best drafting laws, where as for the Germans for instance its much easier and faster to get the best draft laws...

So the law system is pretty boring once you figure out that its really that simple. It's basically just a replacement for the old slider system of HoI2, except that now ALL the sliders have simply one best alternative.

Where as in HoI2 free market slider was better economically, but centrally planned economy always had more transport capacity as an advantage over free market. In similar fashion in HoI2, Soviet Union benefitted from having drafted army because you could take advantage of the serial production of infantry divisions and big manpower pool, but there's also the drawback of less organization and starting experience for units, than what a standing army would have.

The game was also incredibly laggy in the first patches, on some pretty good rigs I might add! You might wanna try out the free demo before bying hoi3, to see how well it runs

**hellheaven1987** · October 10, 2009, 06:54 AM

Originally Posted by Town Watch

A.I. is pretty stupid all around in any case, Soviet Union in A.I. hands is incredibly weak, A.I doesn't defend it's borders most of the time, and doesn't use strategical reserve forces/second lines of defence either, and does crazy stuff, A.I doesn't mobilize properly which means it fights for ages with weak reserve units etc... The laws that provide bonuses once enacted are also pretty botched at the moment, soviet union has massive officer shortages and it cannot enact any kind of draft laws in time for the german invasion.

There's also no incentive to use volunteer army law for example, all the laws simply proceed from the worst to the best, with the democracies having the worst laws in the beginning and slowly get towards the best drafting laws, where as for the Germans for instance its much easier and faster to get the best draft laws...

So the law system is pretty boring once you figure out that its really that simple. It's basically just a replacement for the old slider system of HoI2, except that now ALL the sliders have simply one best alternative.

Where as in HoI2 free market slider was better economically, but centrally planned economy always had more transport capacity as an advantage over free market. In similar fashion in HoI2, Soviet Union benefitted from having drafted army because you could take advantage of the serial production of infantry divisions and big manpower pool, but there's also the drawback of less organization and starting experience for units, than what a standing army would have.

The game was also incredibly laggy in the first patches, on some pretty good rigs I might add! You might wanna try out the free demo before bying hoi3, to see how well it runs

1. Soviet should always rely on standard army, with a standard army Soviet never really needs to build officers at all (200% even with 70 divisions); the problem is AI generally does not disband units, hence AI Soviet generally uses that crappy reserve army.

2. Free Market, in HoI2, is benefit by quickly building units; Central Planning generally takes too long to build units, even with that extra IC. If possible, go Free Market without any doubt, even sometimes it may take longer to get that for facist countries (for Stalinist countries it is adviced not doing Free Market).

**Ojf** · October 10, 2009, 06:09 AM

I have both, I don't like HOI3 it is ugly, slow and I hate the new research system, I would defo get Hoi2 with expansions

**Sharpe's Company** · November 26, 2009, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by Ojf

I have both, I don't like HOI3 it is ugly, slow and I hate the new research system, I would defo get Hoi2 with expansions

Thanks for the advise.

Just from reading about it and looking at Pictures it looks as if it's ugly and the new research system from what I heard sounds quite stupid.

Oh Well stick to Doomsday i suppose

**Ishoss** · November 27, 2009, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by Sharpe's Company

Thanks for the advise.

Just from reading about it and looking at Pictures it looks as if it's ugly and the new research system from what I heard sounds quite stupid.

Oh Well stick to Doomsday i suppose

II+expansions is definetly better than III as of yet. When III gets faster it will probably be better though

**Norge** · December 12, 2009, 09:13 AM

Hoi3 is simply a broken mess that needs at least another year in development before it is playable. Why Paradox released it in its current state is beyond me.

Get HOI2 and its overpriced DLC's instead.

**Dr. Croccer** · December 12, 2009, 10:24 AM

Haven't played III yet but it looks and sounds inferior.

**magpie** · December 12, 2009, 12:33 PM

I would recommend HOI2+armageddon. I gave up on III lag, lag and more lag, bugs ect, game will never run right on a modern comp, as it only uses 1 core, if you have an old p4 3.6 ghz single core you will get better performance than with multicore.

**hellheaven1987** · December 15, 2009, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by magpie

I would recommend HOI2+armageddon. I gave up on III lag, lag and more lag, bugs ect, game will never run right on a modern comp, as it only uses 1 core, if you have an old p4 3.6 ghz single core you will get better performance than with multicore.

Well, the new patch fix most stuff.

**CDMan477** · December 15, 2009, 02:22 PM

If you're going to get 2 wait a week or so and get Arsenal of Democracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal...8video_game%29

III is good, but it's not where it needs to be yet. Give it some time and an expansion or two and enjoy AoD in the meantime.