Hearts of Iron III Review

It’s been a while since Paradox’s World War II grand strategy game was released back at 2009. I’ve never reviewed this game, and with the release of patch 1.4, I thought it would be a great opportunity to jump back in and had a look at this game. For the uninitiated, Hearts of Iron III is a grand strategy game that allows you to take control of any one nation during the period of World War II(1936 to 1948). Like all Paradox games, it’s all in real time.



Firstly, you must note that this is a game that has a 200 page manual, a 200 page strategy guide and a 150 page quick start guide, all very useful for learning the game system. It’s not a game you can pick up and play instantly. That being said, Hearts of Iron III offers copious amounts of detail in simulating World War II. Once you understand the system, it’s very rewarding experience.

Hearts of Iron III nation management is divided into five different parts, production, diplomacy, politics, intelligence and research. You will be flipping through these five screens often to react to what's happening in the game world and to formulate your strategy into action.
 

The production tab allows you to set just how much of your industrial capacity(it is related to the population and size of a nation) you want to invest into reinforcements(they replenish your units), upgrades(when you have researched something you will need to invest in this to implement new technology), production(goes directly to units and infrastructures you build), supply(for generating supply that all units will use once war starts), and consumer goods(which is required to keep the population happy).

You can also build units in the production tab. For land units, you actually build brigades( a groups of a maximum four land units). You can mix and match units to tailor a brigade for a specific function. There’s lots of stats like soft and hard target value(how well the units does against infantry or hard targets like armour), unit width(how much space it takes on the battlefield, a battle only has limited space), etc.



Hearts of Iron III has resource system consists of metal, energy, minerals, oil, supply and fuel. But the most important resources are supply and fuel. Fuel is made from a ratio of all the resources stated above and is used to mobilise your troops during war. Supply is the generic representation of food stuff that your troops will consume. Making sure you have enough supply for the war is essential if you want an effective fighting force.
 

If you are playing a nation that doesn’t have all the resources necessary, trading becomes vital. On the diplomacy screen, players can view the relationship with other nations, and fulfill diplomatic moves that can help them get resources they are lacking in as well as align their nation to another nation(useful for joining in the Axis or Allies faction).

The details of where you get these trade supplies matters as during war, they could possibly be blockaded or no alternative paths could be found to your nation. The United Kingdom will probably depend on United States for resources during the war but don’t expect the Germans not to try to stall your supply lines with their U-boats. Be aware of where you get your resources from.
 

The politics screen gives you the lowdown on the political breakdown of your nation. Which party enjoys the support of the majority and all the other parties and their support base. You can view your ministers, their portfolios, bonuses, and change any one of them to suit the situation.

You can also change the laws in this screen to suit the situation and your strategy. You have to be aware though that changing the laws too soon before a war can have adverse effects to your nation production capability.



You order spies on the intelligence screen. On this screen, you can order them to monitor specific countries, give them specific instructions(like sabotage production facilities) and set priorities. If you’ve infiltrated a country with enough spies, you get more information about the country such as the army they are fielding, their research etc.



Research has had a major change from the previous Hearts of Iron game. New concepts like theoretical and practical points bring a more realistic sense to research. Practical points diminishes if you don’t use your research on the battle field. There more practical points you have, the more effective the research will be.

Also in the technology screen, you will have to balance out the leadership points you have(this number depends on who you assign as a minister in your cabinet and the laws you’ve set) to invest in research, espionage, officers(you need to have a right ratio of officers to divisions to have an effective fighting force) and diplomacy(this gives you diplomatic points to make diplomatic maneuvers).

Any of these functions can be delegated to the AI to take control off making it easy for newcomers to pick just portions of the game they are interested in dabbling in. Slightly useful, but if you’re interested in directing the war, you’ll find that having control of most of those function could help your overall strategy. Perhaps the politics and the intelligence screens are the ones that seem a tad bit removed from the core of the game.

Of course much of that depends on how much you trust the AI’s judgment on how it priorities itself. The AI’s does a decent job of managing any one aspect of the game for you, but you do need to be more hands on if for instance as Britain you need to neutralise the German Uboats from decimating your supply. You can’t have the AI focus production on infantry if what you need is an able fleet to defend your supplies.

In my humble opinion, Hearts of Iron III is more of a war game than a grand strategy game. Don’t get me wrong, it does indeed have facets of a grand strategy game, but it’s the operational level war game part of it that feels more compelling to me. I think Europa Universalis serves empire management much better than the Hearts of Iron series.

The amount of detail that is simulated is astonishing and I won’t be able to go through all of it in this review. Hearts of Iron III runs in real time. It runs a 24 hour clock with each tick(a turn when orders and changes are processed, some changes only take shape after 24 hours) lasting one hour. This comes in play in battles as you get a penalty for fighting battles at night. You need to be mindful of the time and use the clock to plan your divisions movements appropriately.

In battles, terrain plays a big factor as where your units are attacking from will give it bonuses or penalties. In some cases, certain regions will have rivers that run along it’s borders. You could make the battle easier by flanking them and attacking from a region that has no river crossing(or defend yourself by using rivers for your defensive advantage). Many units have improved effectiveness(or less effective) on certain terrain type. For example, armour will always find it more difficult on mountainous terrain and cities while infantry do well in cities.

There are also random events that happen in battle that can turn the tide of a battle. Random events such as counter attacks or breakthroughs could influence the conclusion of the battle helping the attacker or defender to claim victory(giving either side a positif or negative modifier). This changes the monotony of a dice roll centric battle system and gives the battles more personality and randomness it needs.

Divisions can’t immediately get into a battle after one. They’ll be hit with a penalty. You need to keep units that were in a battle away from battles for at least 24 hours(depending on the unit). It also helps build up morale if your unit lost a battle.

Battles are not a battle of annihilation as they are won when an army’s morale is broken. Your unit may not have taken much casualties but once their morale is broken, its game over for that battle. This leads to a chase the enemy down till they are utterly defeated syndrome as enemy units that break retreat backwards(which is something all Paradox games exhibits). Some people might find this frustrating as  you cant get a decisive victory with just a few battles. War is a battle of attrition as the victor continues to harass and chase down the enemy.
 
There is also a weather system that creates storms, snow, rain that can affect the battlefield and your troops. You want to be mindful of this and make the most of your advance. Harsh terrain with bad weather could slow down your troops and make organising a grouped attacked a tricky proposition. However, you are also given a tool to make sure your troops movement sync up at the destination at the same time. Weather also affects battle progress by applying penalties to armoured divisions in specific condition such as sleet, muddy ground etc.

The main unit in Hearts of Iron III is basically a division which might hold a few(a max of four) brigades(which is basically a unit). Divisions fall under the responsibility of Head Quarters. This is the basic command structure of your army in Hearts of Iron III. You could have multiple HQ’s for different theatres and regions on your map with a main HQ that controls all the area specific HQ’s.
 
You could give specific orders to HQ’s to delegate divisions under them to AI control(such as defend these territories, or attack this position, blitzkrieg enemy position and many more). The higher the HQ level, the more bigger part of the army you are giving to the AI to take control off.

You have to keep this in mind as giving your main HQ orders basically means delegating your entire army to it(which you don't want to do). You might want to delegate certain theatres to the AI if you want to be more involved in the campaign on a specific theatre and let the AI handle another one. HQ’s are non fighting units, so you want to keep them behind the frontline but within the radio range of the units under their control.

I’ve really enjoyed my time playing Hearts of Iron III (during war time). It’s engaging, thrilling and very rewarding to you strategy types as there is a lot of cool little detail in controlling your fronts. Hearts of Iron III is at it’s best as an army management game rather than a grand strategy game. It’s depth really shines during the war phase. Just a tip to new players, playing the Spanish Civil War is a great way to introduce you to the main concepts of Hearts of Iron III in a much smaller scale.

PS : Paradox has already announced an expansion for Hearts of Iron III called Semper Fi, that will make army management even more easier and improve upon allied nations AI and the ability to give them instructions.


Pros:
-Excellent operational level detail
-Lots of tactical considerations in battles
-Ability to delegate parts of the game to AI control
-Plenty of random and historical events
-Lots of nice World War II historical details


Con:
-Peace time is boring. Playing from 1936 while gives you a head start to plan for your war strategy,but is too uneventful to be fun.
-Will take some time to learn.
-Loading times can be pretty long
-Game can slow down quite a bit when the war gets busy
-Playing smaller nations less interesting


Verdict: Defend the frontline! And don’t let them through!