- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,280
I've done a couple campaigns of Hearts of Iron IV. The first was as America, with largely historical settings, as I'd never done a full USA campaign before. Things went a bit off plan in Europe. Romania, Turkey, and Italy formed an alliance, and wound up at war with both the Axis and the Allies at the same time. Greece went on the offensive against Turkey, pulling in the United Kingdom, and won, achieving Venizolos' Megali Greece, or at least all of it that wasn't occupied by Bulgaria. Sadly for Byzantophiles, only a year or two later the Axis-Allies alliance broke up, Germany conquered Greece, and eventually all of Turkey as well.
Then they conquered Italy (which was de facto in the Allies due to being occupied by Britain), and France via southern France. I thought Belgium was next, but nope, Belgium proved to be stronger than France, and neither Belgium nor Normandy fell. I think that's when Britain decided to get serious, and not let William the Conqueror's home territory be occupied. By that time I was also feeding them lend-lease equipment, including what wound up being thousands upon thousands of M3 Lee and later M4 Sherman tanks.
I never wound up getting involved in Europe, but instead fought Japan in China and Japan, and eventually teamed up with the UK to defeat the Soviets (America invading from the east and crossing Siberia, naturally, with Britain and the rest of the Allies invading from the West) after Germany and Japan were both defeated. Japan had also been fighting the Soviets, and I think that made it a bit easier than it might have been. Still a nice campaign, and always good to have democracy win worldwide.
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The newer campaign is as Japan, and has made me realize that there's a lot of potential for a 1984-like scenario in Hearts of Iron IV. My modus operandi was to explore, "what if Japan studiously avoided antagonizing America, and didn't get overly involved in mainland China when it did?" Thus, the first expansion target was the Dutch East Indies, which was conquered without drawing in any other opposing powers. Next up was British Malaya, bringing war with the traditional Allies, followed by Australia (except Western Australia, which proved remarkably well defended). Australia probably wasn't the ideal third priority, but after that came the true test - the British Raj. In the end, it proved conquerable via invading first Sri Lanka and then southern India, as did French Indochina, by that point with some help from Siam and, on the seas, Italy.
All of this proved to be a bit too much for the Allies - troops from Europe being defeated in the Far East, the combined Japanese and Italian navies whittling away at the French and British navies. But how would Britain be conquered? It turned out, by a sneaky amphibious invasion in Cornwall from Italy and Germany. This was nearly repelled after the Soviets started fighting the now-distracted Germans, but I risked losing my best troops on the seas to reinforce the invasion, and as a prize, now Scotland and northern England is Eastasia's Airstrip One. Not as defensible as Oceania's Airstrip One was in 1984, but nevertheless a foothold in Europe.
I considered then immediately turning on Germany and invading southern England, doubling down on Airstrip One, but with Italy controlling most of Africa and allied with Germany, the prospects for being able to keep it supplied weren't great, and would have required a risky total commitment of my navy, leaving the home islands highly vulnerable. Instead, that became the time to conquer China before they got too powerful (it was harder in 1941 than it would have been in 1937), while starting to support Imperial Japan's traditional rival, the Soviets, to keep them in the game against Germany, Italy, and Romania - something that Sweden also assisted with effectively. Despite some major losses, they seem to have slowed their bleeding, and the hope is to support them enough to create a long-term stalemate.
The wildcard in the room is the USA, which sometimes enters the war on its own, often circa 1943 or 1944, and could enter against either Eastasia, the Axis, or the Soviets if the Soviets are still around. If the former happens, I'll have to focus on that rather than supporting the long-term stalemate, and Canada would likely become the 49th state as they are currently allied with Eastasia but have decided that having an army is optional.
There's a distinct possibility that it winds up in a three-way long-term power balance a la 1984. Japan as Eastasia (including India, southern Africa, and Airstrip One), the USA as Oceania (minus Australia and Airstrip One), and either the Soviet Union or Germany as Eurasia, ideally the USSR to be line up with the book. Or it could be a four-way long-term balance if I play the stalemate cards just right. Either way, the combination of dystopia governments and geographic balance has it looking a lot more like that 1984 than the more common Cold War or global democracy end game states that I tend to see as someone who mostly plays democracies.
Then they conquered Italy (which was de facto in the Allies due to being occupied by Britain), and France via southern France. I thought Belgium was next, but nope, Belgium proved to be stronger than France, and neither Belgium nor Normandy fell. I think that's when Britain decided to get serious, and not let William the Conqueror's home territory be occupied. By that time I was also feeding them lend-lease equipment, including what wound up being thousands upon thousands of M3 Lee and later M4 Sherman tanks.
I never wound up getting involved in Europe, but instead fought Japan in China and Japan, and eventually teamed up with the UK to defeat the Soviets (America invading from the east and crossing Siberia, naturally, with Britain and the rest of the Allies invading from the West) after Germany and Japan were both defeated. Japan had also been fighting the Soviets, and I think that made it a bit easier than it might have been. Still a nice campaign, and always good to have democracy win worldwide.
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The newer campaign is as Japan, and has made me realize that there's a lot of potential for a 1984-like scenario in Hearts of Iron IV. My modus operandi was to explore, "what if Japan studiously avoided antagonizing America, and didn't get overly involved in mainland China when it did?" Thus, the first expansion target was the Dutch East Indies, which was conquered without drawing in any other opposing powers. Next up was British Malaya, bringing war with the traditional Allies, followed by Australia (except Western Australia, which proved remarkably well defended). Australia probably wasn't the ideal third priority, but after that came the true test - the British Raj. In the end, it proved conquerable via invading first Sri Lanka and then southern India, as did French Indochina, by that point with some help from Siam and, on the seas, Italy.
All of this proved to be a bit too much for the Allies - troops from Europe being defeated in the Far East, the combined Japanese and Italian navies whittling away at the French and British navies. But how would Britain be conquered? It turned out, by a sneaky amphibious invasion in Cornwall from Italy and Germany. This was nearly repelled after the Soviets started fighting the now-distracted Germans, but I risked losing my best troops on the seas to reinforce the invasion, and as a prize, now Scotland and northern England is Eastasia's Airstrip One. Not as defensible as Oceania's Airstrip One was in 1984, but nevertheless a foothold in Europe.
I considered then immediately turning on Germany and invading southern England, doubling down on Airstrip One, but with Italy controlling most of Africa and allied with Germany, the prospects for being able to keep it supplied weren't great, and would have required a risky total commitment of my navy, leaving the home islands highly vulnerable. Instead, that became the time to conquer China before they got too powerful (it was harder in 1941 than it would have been in 1937), while starting to support Imperial Japan's traditional rival, the Soviets, to keep them in the game against Germany, Italy, and Romania - something that Sweden also assisted with effectively. Despite some major losses, they seem to have slowed their bleeding, and the hope is to support them enough to create a long-term stalemate.
The wildcard in the room is the USA, which sometimes enters the war on its own, often circa 1943 or 1944, and could enter against either Eastasia, the Axis, or the Soviets if the Soviets are still around. If the former happens, I'll have to focus on that rather than supporting the long-term stalemate, and Canada would likely become the 49th state as they are currently allied with Eastasia but have decided that having an army is optional.
There's a distinct possibility that it winds up in a three-way long-term power balance a la 1984. Japan as Eastasia (including India, southern Africa, and Airstrip One), the USA as Oceania (minus Australia and Airstrip One), and either the Soviet Union or Germany as Eurasia, ideally the USSR to be line up with the book. Or it could be a four-way long-term balance if I play the stalemate cards just right. Either way, the combination of dystopia governments and geographic balance has it looking a lot more like that 1984 than the more common Cold War or global democracy end game states that I tend to see as someone who mostly plays democracies.
... The downside... only to realize that you can't make Stalker's Pie with cooked meat... you have to use raw 
*facepalm*
. I was just eating them before as a mid-grade calorie food until I noticed the powerful side effect they give... what a waste! 
... These things are so clutch I'm almost tempted to go all the way back to the plane crash just to collect the absurd amount of rose hips down in that ravine... 
.
