Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game

After having played HOI3 extensively since its release, and seeing all of the comparisons that were made between it and HOI2 by the HOI2 fans back when HOI3 was still an incomplete and buggy wreck, I decided to try Darkest Hour, the final development of HOI2. I've got mixed opinions about it. Some things I feel were done better in HOI3 (technology tree, logistics, overall interface), and some done better in HOI2 (tech teams, espionage). HOI2's supply simulation is a bit more primitive, and while HOI3's system is buggy at times and difficult to understand, it (usually) gives you realistic restrictions on getting supplies to the front across bad infrastructure or through areas with partisan activity, where HOI2 just provides a set of global limits on how much and how far. As said, amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics, and HOI2 is weak on it....which is still a big step up from HOI4, where infrastructure only matters in the province your troops are actually in, never mind that barren desert or vast ocean that the supplies need to somehow cross (but HOI4 excels at modeling production). The two games are quite a bit different in several respects, and I can see where some players would prefer this over the sequel. In my opinion, HOI3 eventually turned into something decent after the first expansion (the base game remains somewhat of a mess even with the patches), and some of the extensive mods for HOI3 take it a step or two further. Initially, I tried Darkest Hour Full (the game comes with 3 "modes": HOI2 , DH Light, and DH Full), and after several attempts and not really enjoying it, I switched to DH Light, and found it significantly more engaging. Different tastes, I suppose. I still prefer HOI3. Too bad there's no way to take the best aspects of HOI2, 3, and 4 and combine them into one ideal WWII game.

Compared to any of the previous versions of Hearts of Iron, the long production times makes planning even more essential than ever before. In the older games you could train an infantry division in short three months. But in Darkest Hour the training time has been prolonged to at least one year. Prioritization and planning therefore becomes everything. So although quality divisions are great to put in the field, a quantity of them, with less quality, is much better. In time you can always produce the brigades you want to add. I played at least twenty times as Germany in the 1933 scenario, before I realized that clean infantry divisions in big numbers is the only way forward, if you want to defeat the USSR before 1943. The fact that you can also upgrade divisions now, making for instance an infantry division into a motorized division, adds the layer of flexibility to the planning process, the previous versions of DH lacked. As a Germany that want to destroy the Soviets, you want to focus on your army before you focus on your air force or navy. This lesson is what DH teaches very well. Same lesson for Japan and Italy. The army has to get the highest priority.

Steep learning curve, for sure, but a lot of replayability. You can't complain too much because it's really an official mod (so is my understanding), but it would be nice to go from 1914 straight through to 1953 or something like that. Paradox is awful, though: make a complete game and sell it to me once, you infuriating, lamentable company.

My very first grand strategy game and its awesome, the best part run in my potato laptop and highly addictive, what else can i say, thanks gog for this

Game works fine once or twice then returns "Excel file not found..." and errors out. Many examples online. Devs response is always along the lines of "user error - please uninstall and reinstall." Looks like it might have been a fun game though.