A couple of notes - Firstly, this is pretty image heavy, so I have spoilered all the images below, but trying to load them all at once might be a bit hard on those of us with slower internet.
Secondly, I've never done a Let's Play/After Action report, whatever you call it, so this is treading fun new ground for me.
Thirdly, about the game itself - It's a game made by Paradox, known for their "grand" strategy games, that include enormous depth, complexity and scope, playing out a global map of a certain time period in realtime. Hearts of Iron 3 is the latest instalment in their WW2 era franchise - it covers the years 1936-1948, and as with all Paradox games, you can choose from any nation that legitimately existed at that time. It is, at its heart, a war game, and all other aspects (Such as managing deployment of Spies, managing your cabinet etc) are all centered around war.
EDIT : Also, fourthly - the LP does get better after Entry 1 when things start actually happening.
It is exceptionally detailed and historically accurate, but please do note that it does not have any mention of - Swastikas or tenets of Nazism, war crimes, gulags, the Holocaust and all other manner of terrible tragedies that occurred during this dark time in our history, excluding that fascinating strategic fun of playing out World War II on such a scale, bending history to your will.
It's a great game, from a great company, and hardcore strategy fans might want to give this a looking into, but beware! The demo is truly dreadful, and is not to be trusted!
Last, but not least, thanks go to Hardcore_gamer for showing me this game in his Let's Play as Brazil ; http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.155777-Poll-PLEASE-read-this-AWESOME-gameplay-story-of-mine-that-has-OVER-30-screenshots-UPDATE-is-here#3813239
OK! Today, we'll be playing as Germany, for a couple of reasons - firstly, they start out without a lot of anything, but more potential than any other nation on the planet. Secondly, a piece of DLC I have gives Germany a lot of new options and decisions, making the game more fun. Lastly, as an enormous history geek, nothing gets me hot under the collar faster than the idea of rewriting history where I get to command grand armies and decide the fate of nations.
It's hard to quantify when, exactly, this LP will end, as the game has no *real* end. There is a time limit, and there are victory conditions you can set that define if the Axis/Allies/Comintern won after the game is over, however you can happily fight one war and end the game in 1938 if you like. The player decides how they want to play, and that is really why this is so fun.
[HEADING=2] Entry 1 - Humble Beginnings [/HEADING]
This is the state of Germany in 1936 - Adolf Hitler is the Chancellor, and there is growing resentment at the treatment of Germany at the end of World War 1. The national mind thinks often on reclaiming German honour, establishing a new German empire in the old Prussian tradition, and spreading the rule of National Socialism to those barbaric Communists and Europeans alike.
Note : You don't really have to read in depth the technical details I'm about to go into - not understanding a game this large is no crime, and it won't lessen your fun if you don't know about every tiny thing I do.
At the top is listed various resources that you'll be needing to run your nation, also information on your Industrial Capacity (the output of your factories), spies, military officers, national unity (the morale of people in event of war) and dissent (the level of unhappiness).
Those square thingies are my various divisions - each little square shows me what type of unit it is at a glance (Crossed lines are infantry, the pill-shapes are tanks), and its commander (helpful if you're looking for a specific guy.)
Just below are the various tabs I'm about to go into. Feel free to skip this, it's just to explain about the game to the uninitiated and to explain any terminology that might crop up later on.
This is the Diplomacy screen - it shows you diplomatic status of any nation, such as its relations with other nations, its level of neutrality etc. It also shows the members of each of the game's three factions, and a helpful triangle to visualise each nation's proximity to any given faction.
Here is where you'll conduct trade and broker peace deals. We're going to start with Influencing the United States. They are a giant among men, with an enormous industrial and military might that you want on your side, no matter who you are. Ideally, we'll be able to woo them into our faction, although that's a long way off yet.
This is the Production screen - it shows you what you are building and when it will finish, the distribution of your Industrial Capacity (IC for short), the state of your convoys and it's where you'll select new units for your war machine.
At the moment, Germany is woefully underequipped - the Treaty of Versailles has left our Infantry without any Tank backup, and I'll be going heavy on the Panzers this game. As such, we open by flooding our Amazon basket with Light Panzer divisions, with some Motorised Infantry for backup, and some Transport ships to move troops out to our Eastern Province.
This is our Research screen. It shows us what we can research, how long it will take, and our allocation of resources to : Officer Training, Research, Espionage and Diplomats. I'll be going very tech-heavy this game, as really, a force can destroy ten times its numbers if it's got the best equipment, and because my economy needs the Industrial technology to advance.
This is our Politics tab - the important stuff here is how we treat captured nations, our cabinet ministers, and our policy on various things like the Press and how war-focused our economy is. We shuffle around a few ministers, netting some nice little bonuses in the process...
Finally, our intelligence screen. It tells us varying levels of information on countries, depending on the strength of our Spy network there. For most nations in which we have Spies, I'll be damaging morale and lowering unity - believe me, come the invasion of Russia, it'll be a lot more helpful if they surrender early than if I know exactly how much money they have.
The exception is the United States - for them, I'll be using my ring of Spies to establish pro-Axis propaganda and generally push politicians and public thought towards our point of view. This'll make it a lot easier to get them in the Axis, my ultimate goal as regards them.
Our first movement is to Remilitarise the Rhineland - the area between Germany and France that was ordered to be deprived of military action during the aforementioned Treaty of Versailles. In reality, Hitler correctly guessed that the Allies would not declare war as a result of this gamble - for me, I can simply reload a save if things go wrong
.
However, luckily for us, the Allies decide that it really doesn't matter that much after all. German troops now man the border with France, and I collect a not-too-shabby bonus for reclaiming this strip of land as mine.
My next move is to increase the time that men drafted into my military spend there to 3 years, one of many violations of the Treaty that the German people so resent.
Meanwhile, on my Eastern Front with Poland, I flood the Polish border with soldiers from the Heartland. I know it looks like aggression, but they actually have more infantry than I do on this border, and they have no problems putting their guys right on the line, so why shouldn't we?
It is, however, my intention to build a large tank force to just barrel those Polish infantry out of my way, but for now we have to settle with just looking longingly over at the severed Eastern chunk of our great nation....
I also reorganise the Air Force into several larger groups, so that I have a few fleets of Tactical Bombers with Fighter escorts, all posted on Eastern airbases.
The fun of just going for an early kill like this is that at this point, the Allies have not declared that they protect Poland yet. Moreover, if I never sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (that ceded the Eastern part of Poland to the Soviet Union as part of a Soviet-German non-aggression pact) I can have direct border access to the Western Soviet cities, and believe me, I have every intention of taking them.
At this point I also Allied with Italy, but forgot to take a screenshot. Woops! I'll get better at this as time goes by...
Ah, the Sino-German agreement. Irritating little thorn in my side, this is - You see, I have a good thing going with China, where I trade her supplies and troops for resources (resources that I desperately need). However, China is simply going to use those troops to fight Japan, a natural ally of mine with whom I seek good relations.
I choose to supply the Chinese anyway, since the number I give them is pretty small, and I'll be thanking this decision later when I need the oil...
I'd like to take you quickly aside to point out one of this game's more baffling flaws - neutrality. Here you can see that I physically can't declare war on the United States because I have no cause.
Uh... Hello? Paradox? This is history calling, and we're afraid that NAZI GOD DAMN GERMANY does not care about having good reasons to invade anybody, because you know... Nazi Germany!
I can kind of see how it might exist to prevent me from just steamrolling every small nation without a protector, but in practice it's just annoying as all hell, and I turn it off.
Italy annexes Ethiopia, as part of their "We want a Roman Empire, but don't want to have to fight anyone tough for it" scheme.
Aha! Now we're getting somewhere. The transports are complete, so I can start ferrying troops over to Konigsberg, which provides an unprecedented strategic opportunity in its flanking position, and its proximity to Warsaw, and I'll be taking advantage of both of those facts later on.
My first Panzers pull up to the front line, and I immediately deploy them over in East Prussia. You see, from there I can perform a simple-yet-effective Hammer and Anvil motion. The Iron Wall of superior infantry can walk in bit by bit, and the swift armour from the North will crush the Polish force between the two sides like a melon between two colliding vehicles.
The Spanish Civil War. Historically, the Germans intervened here as a result of political and diplomatic ideologies - however, as far as I'm concerned, screw the Spanish. Spain doesn't factor into my plans at all, and they have little to offer me in return for my help.
Ah, the Olympic Games! Such a glorious and... expensive occasion... I find it interesting to note that the same supplies that I used to run the Olympic Games can be used to keep my front line in rifles and tank shells. What supplies are they using?!
I don't have any option, but I'm not opposed to the deal. The diplomatic bonus I get from a bunch of important nations is very nice, and can you really put a price on that? After all, what is more important than friendship?
Wait, what? Poland built tanks of her own and out them on my border? Bastards! I'm not really concerned by this, since I can far outproduce her, however I consider this a grave offence to the German people...
I'm now building an experimental Rocket Test site in Rostock, on advice from some very interesting scientists. Who knows where this might lead? They tell me that we might one day unite our rockets research with our freshly begun nuclear program...
Ah, yes, Nazism rears its ugly head... (Just a notice, this is not in the vanilla game. The DLC is an adapted mod that adds this, so I stand by the fact that there is no Nazism in the game). I'm not doing it. I know it doesn't cost much, but really, this is a war game. Propaganda about the evils of Communism is basically useless to me.
Interesting choice here, the Four Year Plan. On the one hand, I lose a very good Armament Minister. On the other, the bonuses from this are really very nice... That Armament minister will later be removed from my cabinet anyway due to personal conflicts with Hitler, so I figure I might as well do it now. I take the Heavy Industry focus. I have a distinct feeling I'll be needing it sooner or later.
Apparently, I subconsciously hate Italy, because here I signed the Pact of Steel with Italy and forgot to take a screenshot again. Ordinarily I'd laugh in their faces, but that's the fun of an alternate-history - Italy doesn't suck in the game. Mussolini isn't here to be ridiculous and mess things up, and the Italian army has the ability to research its way to perfectly reasonable levels, making them a pretty nice ally. And in this game, for the most part, Allies really do help. Very occasionally they might ignore a plea for help if they are busy, but more often than not they do good work and really help your cause.
Sorry for the wall of text here, but I forgot yet another screenshot (sorry, I'll try harder next time). I could choose between diplomatically favouring Japan or China, basically, and I abstained. In the long run, I want the natural ally of the Japanese on my side, and they will most likely win in China. But for now, I really, really need the Chinese trade.
My new wave of tanks arrive on time, and I take a quick Winter break from tanks to prepare my country for a coming war with Britain (I know it seems like I'm thinking too far ahead, but I've had the AI surprise me and bite me on the ass when I thought there was nothing wrong, so I'm taking no chances) by building a huge quantity of anti-aircraft guns. British Bomber Command will shred my Western industry to pieces if I don't get these guns in place, and if your economy takes a sudden hit, it can really screw up your plans, so I reckon it's better to be safe than sorry here.
I spend the next few months on the edge of my seat, waiting for Spring to arrive. Polish roads are bad enough during the Summer, I have no intention of waging war in a country of mud, snow and frost.
With crunch time on my tanks now over, I relax a bit, build some more AA guns and start on improving my industry. Things are looking pretty good at this early stage.
With the Winter broken, the ground free of mud and snow, the temperatures above freezing again and a spell of good, clear, Luftwaffe weather there couldn't be a better time for...
Operation : Empire! My Army Group North (blue) will push South and East, enveloping Warsaw and pushing the Polish reinforcements from the Eastern border back out of my way.
Army Group South (red) will seize Krakow, hold the line there unless they find a gap, and push North to meet with soldiers from the West in Lodz, hopefully cutting off a retreat to that point from either the North or the West.
Army Group West (green) will seize Poznan and Danzig, before making a beeline straight for Warsaw and Lodz, reuniting both Army Groups on one line, and pushing the Poles into a deadly trap, from which there is no escape...
END OF ENTRY 1
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
[HEADING=3] Next Entries [/HEADING]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13144661"]Entry 2 - Operation: Empire[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13173963"]Entry 3 - The Coming Storm[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13195737"]Entry 4 - Whack-A-Mole[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13245768"]Entry 5 - The Battle of France[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13263168"]Entry 6 - Darkest Hour[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13296278"]Entry 7 - The Battle of Spain : Part 1[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13306511"]Entry 8 - The Battle of Spain : Part 2[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13322839"]Entry 9 - Operation: Sealion[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13395347"]Entry 10 - Diplomacy[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13422621"]Entry 11 - Annihilation[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13503869"]Entry 12 - Preparation[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13539141"]Entry 13 - Panzerkampf[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13545750"]Entry 14 - Drang nach Osten[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13612662"]Entry 15 - Desert Sands[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13670574"]Entry 16 - Kriegsmarine[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13755836"]Entry 17 - Advance into India : Part 1[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13802098"]Entry 18 - Advance into India : Part 2[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13846769"]Entry 19 - The Jewel in the Crown[/a]
[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.321418.13931691"]Entry 20 - Atop Mountain Peaks[/a]
