Hearts of Iron III

[PZ]

Has anyone ever played this one?  It is listed as a strategy game - this genre I am unfamiliar with.  Here is some information from the publisher:

The Hearts of Iron series has become renowned for being the biggest, most detailed and complete strategic game series on World War 2 ever made. Hearts of Iron III will follow that tradition closely while focusing on satisfying veteran players through a multitude of brand new features and systems, including a huge map with more than 15,000 land and sea provinces.  Hearts of Iron III is scheduled for release in August, 2009.

Features

• Play as any nation from 1936 to 1948, more than 100 countries to choose from.
• Control the oceans with aircraft carriers, submarines and battleships and use your air force to defend your skies, support your naval and ground forces, and to bomb your enemies.
• Thousands of historically accurate real-world military commanders and politicians.
• Realistic military command AI with unprecedented levels of interaction.
• In-depth diplomatic and political system.
• Historical accuracy combined with an unparalleled level of freedom of choice.
• Customize your divisions in detail with more than 20 types of brigades.
• Government-in-exile makes it possible to continue to struggle from abroad with underground movements and uprisings against the oppressing power.
• Strategic warfare system makes it more important to defend the skies and oceans against foreign attacks; leaving cities open to enemy bombing will now be devastating.
• A completely new intelligence system, with several types of intelligence sources, makes it possible to get information about enemy reserves and troop movements.
• Assign troops to "theatres" on the map to fight two-front wars more successfully.
• The new AI system and more detailed map will allow for more strategic decisions.
• Flexible technology system with hundreds of categories, and unlimited research.
• Highly realistic historical order of battles.
• The first realistic logistic system ever in a strategy game.

[Art Blade]

not seen it either

[fragger]

It appears to be a vaguely Risk-like game, possibly turn-based, but on a much more ambitious scale, where you have dozens of tile-like units representing armour, infantry, etc. on a map-like "board". Reminiscent of the old Avalon Hill tabletop board games that were big in the 60's and 70's, but with diplomatic and political aspects modelled as well as combat. Could be quite immersive if you're into turn-based strategy and micromanagement.
I may look into it further as I quite enjoy these sort of games when I'm in the right frame of mind, ie. laid back and mellow and not intent on shooting and blowing up anything that moves. ;D

[Art Blade]

I've never liked round-based strategic games. :)

[PZ]

It appears to be a vaguely Risk-like game, possibly turn-based, but on a much more ambitious scale, where you have dozens of tile-like units representing armour, infantry, etc. on a map-like "board". Reminiscent of the old Avalon Hill tabletop board games that were big in the 60's and 70's, but with diplomatic and political aspects modelled as well as combat. Could be quite immersive if you're into turn-based strategy and micromanagement.
I may look into it further as I quite enjoy these sort of games when I'm in the right frame of mind, ie. laid back and mellow and not intent on shooting and blowing up anything that moves. ;D

Your comment reminded me that I have an old Civil Way simulation game similar to what you mentioned above - went into my storage area and found it - turns out that it is now a collectible.  Produced by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI), the paper game map is large enough to require a 6x6 foot table or larger. I think that you're correct - the further I look into Hearts of Iron III, the more it looks like the old Risk-style game.

[fragger]

I've still got one of those old games, "Panzer Leader", but somehow lost half the pieces long ago. Can't bring myself to chuck it out though, sentimental value and all that - I've had it since I was about 14. Fun game, but fiddly, with all the little cardboard tiles, especially when they're stacked. PC's are great for these sort of games as they take a lot of the drudgery out, ie. no fiddly tiles, you don't have to w@&k out lines-of-sight, roll dice and consult tables for the outcome or try to remember which units have moved and which ones haven't, etc. etc.
I've also got some old Civil War PC games from Talonsoft that w@&k along these lines. They were originally created for Windows 3.1 (!) way back when, but they still run under Vista.

[Art Blade]

I didn't notice there was a difference between 3.11 and Vista apart from the desktop background.

[PZ]

I didn't notice there was a difference between 3.11 and Vista apart from the desktop background.

lol, good one - mot much of a difference at all  ;D

I actually have each and every tile still in the box - at one time I actually wanted to build a gaming table for my den with the huge map laminated into it's surface.

[fragger]

Somehow I missed that reply, Art... Good one! ;D ;D :-X

Silly little barely-related tale: I used to w@&k in IT as a desktop support technician in an office environment with about 300 users. While I worked there we successively rolled out Win 98, 2000 and XP. The Finance dept. however had one single standalone machine which still had 3.1 on it, which they used once a month for an hour or so to run some obscure report which later versions of Windows didn't support. When not in use, it just sat there with the 3.1 splash screen showing.
So one day I got a support call from someone in that dept. to say something weird was happening - for some reason they'd turned off the monitor, and even unplugged it from the wall power socket, but it was still getting power (?). Wtf, said I, that's a good trick, better go and look at it. What it was was that after sitting there for about 8 years with no screensaver, the splash screen had burned itself into the monitor screen so thoroughly that it still looked just as bright and vivid as when the monitor was still running.
My colleagues and I had a good chuckle over that one - and at the person who reported the monitor that could apparently suck power through the air from the wall socket.
I guess if anything this story serves to illustrate the value of screensavers. :)

[Art Blade]

geeeeeeez, what the hell? LOL!! My professional experience in one sentence: "there is no such thing as no such thing" lol

[DKM2]

I have Number 1 and 2 And Dooms Day, never got 3 yet.

Biggest WW2 strategy game ever, by far, F'N HUGE!
Its very very very detailed, you have to build everything, years in advance
Eg. You want a aircraft carrier to use in 1944, better start building it in 41.
You can't play this game without being "into" it.
Plan everything, oil, coal, energy, allocate resouces.

You plan everything, allocate resources to industry, production, research,
infrastructure, shipping lanes, politics, etc.
And don't mess it up or years later you end up with troops with no transports,
not equipped for terrain, no air cover, troop transports that run out gas, on and on.

Very modable too, all text based.

[PZ]

What do you think of 1 and 2?  From your description, it sounds like SimCity on steroids - you need to account for everything and then watch how it plays out in the long run.

[DKM2]

Call it Super Chess++.

Yeah, its a lot of long term planning, look how long it took them
before D-Day, years! All while everything else was going on.
You'll feel that, in a documentary kinda way, right down to supply lines for units.
There's tools for automating of coarse, which you can override anytime you want.

I found the whole thing plays out historically very real.

A small Swedish company make it, I think.  (banned in China I hear, hurt their feelings  :'( )
Don't want make this political, but once Germany got things rolling in 39
military wise you'll find yourself doing the same things in the years after, you have to.
(and thats just europe, whole other ball game on the other side in the Pacific)

It'll make you think if you're a WW2 buff.

Cheap too, and they use the same software tools I use.   ;D 

[PZ]

Might be worth checking out for me - I'm a fan of war history.  Thanks for the mini-review  :-X

[DKM2]

Their web site.
http://www.paradoxplaza.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=442&Itemid=234
And even lots more reading.
http://www.heartsofirongame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=32&Itemid=79

[PZ]

This is going to take some reading, but might be the kind of game I might enjoy.  Looking at the sites you provided reminds me of an old Avengers episode in which John Steed visited with a half-insane old military man that had a huge battlefield scenario set up in his den on which were placed metal figurines depicting the various military units.  He played these out complete with battlefield sounds.  I always wanted to do something like that, and with a game like Hearts of Iron, it might become a reality (at least in electronic form)

[RedRaven]

from what i've read of it this game looks like a possible 'Great' game to get lost in, games of this genre are where i started with PC games, tho all set in Roman or Medieval era's. never actually found a good, challenging one for WW2. pulling the demo down now and if it plays as well as it looks/sounds will be straight to the nearest shop to buy it.
just the thought of companies of Tigers & Panzers rolling into enemy territory, guns blazing and all at my command gives me goose-bumps ;D

[PZ]

Cool - I need to get the demo as well - let us know how your experiences go  :-X

[RedRaven]

will do :-X .  getting it from Filefront and they say
"This demo gives players a taste of what they can expect from Hearts Of Iron 3. This demo contains the Tutorial plus Single Player Campaign of 1939.This demo allows you to play as either Germany, France, Poland or the United Kingdom for the first four months of World War II."
this link has full list of places to get Demo from -
http://www.heartsofirongame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=24&Itemid=71

[PZ]

I noticed that many of the in-game screen captures show planes tanks, and other vehicles.  I wonder if these are just there for illustrative purposes, or if you set up a battle scenario, you actually get to see things played out (that would be cool, but I kind of doubt it)

[DKM2]

Went out for lunch, picked up HOI3.   ;D
I got'm all.

[RedRaven]

nice, look forward to your review :-X

[PZ]

Indeed - especially if you have any hints/tips/tricks that might help us newbies - I for one have never even tried a game like this.

EDIT: installing demo now...

dang it - the demo installation failed  :'(

However, I just finished brewing a Nespresso!  :)

[DKM2]

On that second site I posted you'll find lots of info, screen shots, 7 or 8 videos of game play,
demo, and you can download both the quick start guide and the user manual.

This'll be my sunday afternoon relaxer.

[DKM2]

Indeed - especially if you have any hints/tips/tricks that might help us newbies - I for one have never even tried a game like this.

EDIT: installing demo now...

dang it - the demo installation failed  :'(

However, I just finished brewing a Nespresso!  :)

???   you could try a different download site. I've had crap d/l before.