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.
