Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Developer:Paradox Development Studio

Introduction

The third expansion for Paradox Interactive's acclaimed World War 2 real-time grand strategy game Hearts of Iron III has just been released. This expansion has come after the expansions Semper Fi and For The Motherland. Wargamers were promised additions and enhancements worthy of an expansion. Will they get these in Their Finest Hour?

Elite Units and Espionage

• Recorded as part of a GOG.com sponsored livestream. (However, this YouTube video was NOT sponsored.) Want to see m.
• Hearts of Iron III is a grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive.The Microsoft Windows version of the game was released on August 7, 2009, while the Mac OS X version was released on December 7, 2009.

Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour has brought with it an array of unique elite units. These units include, but are not limited to: Ghurkhas for the United Kingdom, the Waffen SS for Germany, Imperial Guards for Japan and Rangers for the United States. The new and unique units that are added to each major power?s arsenal are a welcome addition to the game, as these units are more powerful and specialised than the standard army units that can be produced. However, these units do come with a production cap, so you cannot simply recruit as many as you would wish or desire. This realistically stops the player from over producing ahistorical OOBs that could seriously unbalance game play. As we can see below while playing Germany, Waffen SS units can be directly built within the ?Production? screen.

Espionage and covert operations have also been expanded with new missions. This extended system has many new additions that everyone will appreciate. Setting up your spy rings is now far more important than before. The first major change comes with the addition of ?Covert Operation? points that must be accrued to enable the player to set various spy missions in motion. For example, to launch a coup in a target country you must have a minimum of twenty covert operation points. The below figure will show you how the game displays covert operation points being gathered against certain countries. You can also directly influence provinces on the map by sending your spies to gather information, or slow down the enemy by causing confusion through changing road signs, etc... The player can also set his spies to work with new missions on the intelligence screen: i.e. ?Counterespionage,? ?Military Espionage,? ?Tech Espionage,? increasing the perceived threat of a country (propaganda) and disrupting national unity. Now, all aspiring intelligence leaders and propaganda leaders have plenty to occupy themselves with!

Strategic Warfare and Combat Tactics

A new ?Strategic Warfare? screen is one of the other additions of this release. This compares your strategic losses to the enemy by using graphs and visual displays. As the war progresses, this feature will become an invaluable reference tool for all players. Visual displays are certainly a handy tool for those understanding and contemplating the complexities of waging a war. Also, there is a simple mechanism in the production screen that allows the player to ?Lend Lease? IC to his/her allies, making economic diplomacy much easier than in the past. The enemy can inflict losses on the convoys that are automatically set up to deliver these goods, but some aid will always get through. If we look at the two figures below we can see our land and sea losses compared to the enemy. (I really need to sort my convoy system out!!) There is also much more useful information available, at a glance. I love this enhancement.

Your leaders can now acquire new traits (as like seen in previous Hearts of Iron engines) such as ?Urban Assault Specialist,? ?Desert Fox,? ?Mountaineer,? ?Jungle Rat,? ?Ranger? (forest combat), ?Swamp Fox? and ?Hill Fighter.? These are indeed welcomed labels for your nondescript leaders to strive for! Combat tactics have also been added. Every battle starts with leaders picking a particular tactic, and this 'choice' can be affected by a new ?aggression slider? that the player sets (see figure below). Higher aggression levels translate into the commander on the spot picking higher risk tactics, so an element of trust in commanders comes into play here. The rules governing armour and armour piercing (anti-tank) have been revamped, making these weapon systems much more important in the scheme of things. I can see mini arms race's developing between opposing sides as one strives to out do the other in regards to building units that implements these attributes. Great!!

Custom Game and Operational Orders Map Modes

Hearts of Iron III, a strategy game released in 2009 by Paradox Interactive. The game was released for the Macintosh and PC (Windows). Hearts of Iron III is a strategy game in which the authors focused on accurately reflecting the realities of World War II. The action takes place between 1936 and 1948. About This Game Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.

The new ?Custom Game Mode? (CGM) is also a significant new feature. This allows you to customise your country of choice before you begin playing. The player goes to the customisaton screen and has a certain number of points to spend on, like ?Diplomacy?: by altering alignments, joining or leaving factions (although, for obvious reasons, you cannot alter faction leaders). The second stage is ?Research?: where you can start with a clean slate and choose the techs you?ve researched, or you can just alter a few within the constraints of how many points you have to spend. Lastly, there is ?Deployment?: you can produce and deploy your combat units and buildings on the map. All of this is great for those ?What-If? campaigns, testing and sandboxing. (see figures below for visual examples)

The ?Operational Orders Map? mode will also be an unfamiliar enhancement noticed by players of this expansion. This handy addition allows the player, firstly, to view all of World War 2?s operations in detail, like: Case Blue, Case Yellow, Citadel etc... It also allows you to create your own detailed Operational Plans, enabling the player to share them with friends and allies alike. In addition, this is likely to enhance any AAR's tremendously, created by players. A nice touch I must say! (see figures below)

Naval Forces and Combined Arms Enhancements

Although the naval system still isn?t perfect, more in-depth naval invasions are now on the cards. No longer can you just sail your transports to some god-forsaken beach and dump them. They now take longer to unload, simulating the delays seen in historical amphibious assaults, so you can't just arrive on the beach and go in with all guns blazing. This graduated unloading system is now something players must consider into their strategies when planning amphibious assaults. It?s not all bad, however, as improved landing craft can now be researched and developed to overcome many of the logistical problems faced by the player. (see below)

The combined arms system has also been tweaked. When you go to the build screen, all units are now colour coded enabling the player to see at a glance the different types of units that can be built. There is also a handy little calculator to work out your combined arms modifiers. Infantry are now the key units in combined arms calculations. For example, if you combine an Infantry brigade with an Artillery and Tank Destroyer brigade, you can rack up a massive 15% combat modifier! Excellent!! (see below figure)

New Scenarios and Multiplayer Chat Mode

Included in Their Finest Hour are two new scenarios: ?The Spainish Civil War? and ?The Winter War 1940.? These are two interesting stand alone scenarios in their own right?resulting in key developments that affected World War 2 in various ways?but they also afford the new player a way to lessen the steep learning curve of this game (its complexity attained over the past several years), as they are far shorter and less involved than plunging head on into the larger campaigns. (see figures below)

In addition to all of this, there is also a new multiplayer chat mode. This has an auto ?faction join? function allowing new players to sign in. This is a great new feature that will hopefully encourage more ?old sweats? to take the plunge into the multiplayer arena. Multiplayer is where the game truly comes into its own, and if you can find the right crowd and you have a few hours/days on your hands, I can only encourage old and new alike to play multiplayer. If you don?t have much time on your hands, or you have trouble finding opponents, then the AI is ok. AI has been tweaked in this release, but the results of this seem to be both better and worse. However, the game is really transformed when played against human opponents.

Conclusion

This is a must get expansion for all HOI3 fans, as there are significant and welcomed additions/enhancements included here. These add even more to the games immersion factor and all-round playability. Veteran players will appreciate all the additions in this new expansion.

The game?s overall complexity is one of its many attractions, but for new players the learning curve is certainly steep. Hearts of Iron 3 has been about for several years now, and each expansion seems to increase its complexity on top of a foundation (the original Hearts of Iron 3) that was already seen as too complex by those who were used to the Hearts of Iron II engine. Some may even find this intimidating. The two smaller scenario's included in Their Finest Hour will be a welcomed addition for new players; while they will allow seasoned veterans with not too much time on their hands to dip their toe into the multiplayer side of the game.

A few may argue that some of the enhancements included are more chrome than game changing, but I would disagree. I think Their Finest Hour is a must have for any serious HOI3 wargamer and newbie alike. The changes to espionage and the additions of elite units alone, make the expansion worth purchasing. The marriage of Hearts of Iron III and Their Finest Hour has created something so immersive, detailed and fun to use, that hours can go by without even notice (?yes dear....I'm switching it off right now........?)

Pros

1) The AI appears to be smarter on the defence now.

2) Artillery and Anti-Tank units are now more important both on offense and defence.

3) Espionage and enemy covert operations are now more dangerous and must be factored into your overall strategy.

4) The Custom Game mode opens up endless opportunities both for the serious modder and casual gamer alike.

Cons

1) Minors have slightly less freedom in the overall scheme of things.

2) The AI will still occasionally make reckless and wasteful mistakes when on the offensive. Paradox Interactive has not gotten the AI balance quite right yet, vis-a-vis a player?s offense/defence. It's good, but with a promised AI patch next year, we will have to keep our fingers crossed and wait. Or (if you have the time), you could throw caution to the wind and try multiplayer!!

Review written by: Chris Cole

About Chris Cole

Chris Cole started wargaming in the late 1960s after finding the hobby via chess and model soldiers. His first wargame was SPI's PanzerGruppe Guderian that arrived in his first ever Strategy & Tactics magazine, which he is still collecting!! From that moment on, he was hooked!! By the age of 14 he was playing SPI's War in the East/War in Europe. After serving in the army as a tank crewman he joined the AA, even playing chess in the turret of a Chieftain tank!! He loves all wargames, from ancients to sci-fi!! But his favorite games include World in Flames (ADG), War in the Pacific: Admiral?s Edition (Matrix Games) and Hearts of Iron III (Paradox Interactive). Chris is also an avid film buff who collects black-n-white films, and a keen reader and student of military history. He lives in Cannock, England with his lovely wife.

Forum username: Empire101

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The State of the Hearts of Iron Union (Or Should We Say Disunion?)

First off, we love the Hearts of Iron series. One of us went so far as to sink a full week of man hours into Hearts of Iron II compressed into a long weekend. The resulting binge netted him conquering the entire WORLD with the US just for the hell of it ? that?s right every province in the game. Some of our friends even explored some ?alternative? methods of dominating the globe with varying levels of success. Naturally, when the review copy of Hearts of Iron III came up on the staff board at The Wargamer a fairly significant bar fight ensued, complete with sharp objects, office furniture, and one guy even trying to deploy a trebuchet loaded with a Coke machine. Make no mistake ? we?re big Paradox fans around these parts. But Hearts of Iron III has some issues that deserve a critical examination, and love affair with the series or no, someone has to step in and call it like they see it. In the end it was decided that we?d need a group effort ? not because the boss was indecisive in who would get the review, but because the issues being experience were so significant that we wanted multiple systems, users, and viewpoints to help establish a baseline.

Unfortunately with both the review build and commercially purchased versions installed and ready to run things began going amiss rather quickly. For starters, the game out of the box is in essence unplayable. Even after the v1.2 patch just being released there are still significant issues, not the least of which is the lag we still experience even when switching between simple user interface screens. We?ll be the first to admit that our systems are not the fastest rigs out there. But we still meet or exceed the minimum requirements and should therefore be able to play the game ? at least that?s the expectation. Here?s one machine?s profile ? our weakest one and the game?s minimum requirements:

But before we get too much further into this discussion it?s worth noting that the minimum system requirements aren?t clear ? even on Paradox?s own forums. Note the screenshot below.

These discrepancies are not cosmetic. If we look at the two ?minimum? video cards, there is a significant difference between them - the 8800 is a fairly mid-high range card while the 6800 is low-mid range. All of which is just details?unless you?re as big a fan of Hearts of Iron as we are, in which case it?s a life-altering decision whether or not your rig can run the game. These discrepancies run deeper than just the forums ? the printed manuals list lower system requirements, too, making it unclear as to when or why the minimum specs may have changed.

The fact that our systems meet the minimum requirements ? regardless of which ones are used ? but the game is still unplayable is significant. A mistake in estimation like this can have a big impact since many people trust this laundry list of computer hardware as an important litmus test before they open their wallets to purchase the game. Our reports of lag issues are far from an isolated incident. A quick trip to the Paradox forums will show that many people with machines far more powerful than ours experience similar troubles.

Additionally, the game also frequently freezes either due to software bugs or just general system overload. It?s hard to tell exactly why the game locks up and requires a CTRL+ALT+DEL and ?End Process? routine because, again, the game is not very playable in its current state.

Of course it?s very important to note that Paradox has release two updates and a hotfix. But the updates are also rife with issues. For starters, in one case we didn?t install Hearts of Iron III into the default directory because the reviewer likes to keep his games in a particular part of his hard drive ? not an unreasonable or uncommon practice. This unfortunately throws the game?s auto update feature for a loop. Every time the button is clicked to check for and install updates the auto updater says that he doesn?t have Hearts of Iron III installed. To make things worse, there?s no feature that allows the player to point the auto updater in the right direction ? it just says the game isn?t installed. This isn?t necessarily a big deal as it is possible to download the update separately and then install it ? but it is a minor annoyance and it shows a lack of polish.

Despite the three updates offered by Paradox, the game still remains unplayable ? and unreviewable - for us. A few minor issues seemed to be resolved (we had a one-time event pop up every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes ? that?s fixed!) ? but there are still many outstanding problems that render the game more or less useless even for people with machines powerful enough to run the game ?properly?. Once again, we?ve only been able to confirm the existence of many outstanding post-patch bugs in the most rudimentary sense since the game runs at a crawl for us. However, the take-home point from this is that there are severe issues, many of which we can say are not just minor complaints trumpeted above their worth, that remain as of the writing of this article.

Other issues include, but are not limited to, problems with the weather. Some gamers have noted that it has rained daily over Poland for over a year without interruption. That might be something which could be overlooked in the ETO as a comical glitch, but in the PTO, where the weather can sock in all carrier flights, the result is one of a carrier-less (or at least a grounded air force) conflict that is decidedly ahistoric. Such issues are reminiscent of Europa Universalis III being released with core functions like spy creation being absent from the central nation of the era: France. What is curious about these issues isn?t the fact that there are bugs in the game ? all games have bugs ? but rather that they are so glaringly obvious and obviously unacceptable that one wonders if the QA team signed off on them after an evening overindulging in Aqvavit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akvavit).

A Communal Conflagration

Further adding to the Hearts of Iron III release muddle is the ensuing community disgust and infighting taking place at a variety of wargaming boards. It would seem that the Hearts of Iron game engine is the last place people turn to do battle; the forum post is the weapon of choice these days. We?ll decline to take a side in the ?debate? between Paradox fans and detractors as we think strapping on a helmet and starting to shoot in one direction or the other is counterproductive to The Wargamer?s standing and a disservice to you, the reader.

It should be noted, however, that foul play is being alleged by both sides and more than a few credible reports of over aggressive administrating and other maladies are surfacing in other forums (not least of which The Wargamer forums), and in other cases it appears as though Paradox detractors are clearly trolling. We?ve seen instances in our own forums where gamers have sounded off in the negative but after being pressed for details haven?t ever seen the actual game. Again, we have no idea as to the validity of some of claims that people are banned from some forums or otherwise mistreated ? we?re simply stating that reports are surfacing and any prospective Hearts of Iron III customer should know that the community waters both in official and unofficial channels are anything but tranquil.

The Greatest Strength and the Greatest Weakness

Paradox?s track record on the initial status of major title releases is, well, not great. Europa Universalis III was a hotly anticipated launch which many considered to be equally buggy after the initial excitement settled. Suffice to say, the Hearts of Iron III debacle is not an isolated incident even despite its magnitude.

The community seems to be divided into three camps. In one camp are the die-hard fans who will buy any game on release day, and will persevere through a series of patches until a game reaches its full potential. In a second camp are gamers who will sit on the sidelines fully confident that a flurry of patches will be issued over the months and years after a Paradox game is released, and will eventually buy a game at a discounted price once enough patches have been released that stabilize and perfect a game. In the third camp are those detractors who won?t buy into the process at all, disparaging the dynamic of releasing a game before it is free of most significant flaws.

Clearly, we fall in the first camp. We prefer to buy games when they?re released hoping for the best but expecting a flurry of patches to improve and ultimately fix any issues of significance.

It is in that light that it should be noted, and probably celebrated, that Paradox has a positively awesome track record of supporting and patching their games. It is not at all uncommon for a patch to be released several years after a game first hit the shelves, with it addressing nothing more than game additions and improvements ? operational bugs having long since been resolved. Regardless of how one stands on the practice of releasing games knowing that significant patches will need to follow, the balance of fixes and the dedication to improving games long past their expected retail ?shelf life? is a practice that should be lauded. Kudos to Paradox for their diligent efforts.

We have no doubt at all that Hearts of Iron III will shine beautifully once the Paradox crew have had a crack at patching and patching and patching some more?. Our point here is that although the game?s appeal is a little murky given the significant technical difficulties we?re seeing ? we have no doubt that Paradox will pull through and support this title through its entire life cycle. Anyone who really wants to buy this game but is worried that Paradox will just let the title die and move on to the next big release need not worry ? their record more than speaks for itself: sit tight, comrade, help will be on the way.

Gamers who are on the fence owe it to themselves to take a look at the demo. The demo was released before any patches, and to our knowledge still contains the original code. It should be a reliable indicator of the game?s UI and whether you?ll like it. It should also give a fairly good indication as to any lag/performance/optimization issues as well as some other significant bugs that might be experienced on your gaming rig. Anyone still waiting to see how the game evolves should continue to follow developments ? constant evolution of a game is a hallmark of Paradox titles.

It?s for these two reasons that we think that Paradox?s track record is both its greatest strength (patch support) and its greatest weakness (initial releases). Regardless of what ?camp? you may reside in; there can be little doubt that given the time to work out the bugs, Hearts of Iron III will eventually become the game everyone is expecting it to be. It won?t be long before every moment of the weekend will be dedicated to trying to best our record of conquering every province in the game. In the mean time, love it or hate it, the game may have been released too early for our machines, but the patches will arrive exactly as intended.

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