Grand Strategy Just got Grander.

Ok kicking things off, and it’s one for the Strategy fans.

Paradox Interactive have just released Hearts of Iron 3, and well I’m a massive HoI fan, and well a big Paradox fan in general, so I’ve been anticipating this game for quite some time. The whole series is a World War 2 grand strategy game for the PC and you can’t get any grander then HoI. The map encompasses most of the globe and is divided into regions and even smaller territories. The game allows you to either follow your chosen nation through the course of WW2 or you could opt to break away from what really happened and plan your own war for global conquest. Like I said before, the series is truly grand, and is on a huge scale. You can literally select any nation on the planet from that time period and take the helm as you quite literally conquer Europe with the awesome power of Lithuania. Not only though is the map epic but so too are the tech trees and diplomacy. The historical accuracy is also phenomenal. Practically every single general and politician in the world at the time has been accounted for, and is also represented by period photographs. The research and development for the entire series could happily put the History Channels best WW2 research teams to shame.

Now Hearts of Iron 3 looks to be an excellent game and judging from what the developers say it will be. Some of the new features in this game include intelligent AI for both, the player nation and non player nations, an even more in-depth combat system, economy system and political system. The game also features an expanded tech tree and improved gaming engine for both warfare and nation management. The new engine allows you to divide your army up for example and task each army group with capturing a certain target, which then the AI will set about that task. Another new feature is the expanded campaigns. In the previous games, it was possible to follow historical paths as well as alternative paths, but events such as the Austrian annexation or the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour required specific conditions to be met, before that event could be activated. These conditions were never known to the player. Now however with HoI 3 the player is able to see what it is that they need to do, to be able to complete specific events.

Something however I find slightly troubling with this game is the new graphics engine, and the way it is generally displayed. In the previous games, the graphics and layout were basically a combination of spreadsheets and maps, with the excitement of animated 2D units. Now the game takes a much more 3D appearance, and with more detailed units and terrain. The game is very reminiscent in appearance to Europa Universalis 3, another grand strategy game by Paradox. EU3 was the same concept but a different time zone, the renaissance. HoI 3 looks to me to be visually identical to EU3, and this, in most games would be a great thing. However, due to the sheer size of EU3, coupled with the 3D graphics, altogether it made for a rather choppy game experience. I mean you needed a really good gaming PC for it to run smoothly. This worries me that Paradox will make the same mistake with HoI 3, and put so much into it, and forget about the people with slower systems. But this is yet to be seen.

A relief to this problem however is also on its way. Due for release in December, Hearts of Iron 2: Arsenal of Democracy, is a new expansion for HoI2 and is set to update it so that HoI 2 is as in-depth as HoI3 and has the improved AI and added features, however with the classic map and spreadsheet style, which personally I favour.

So, my opinion. Well if you haven’t played any of the HoI or Paradox games, then my advice would be to pick up a copy or a bundle pack of either HoI2 or EU2 (personally I would go for HoI2), and get a feel for how grand the game actually is. Not many shops stock the games however you can pick them up reasonably cheap on the web, Amazon and places similar are good starts. Prices go from between £5 up to around £25 depending on whether you’re buying a single copy or the bundle packs. On the other hand, if you have played HoI before and do like it then if you have a good PC go for HoI3 if not, and your running an older system or a laptop, then stick with Hoi2 and wait for the expansion.

Andrew, the Editor.