Hearts of Iron IV

Hearts of Iron IV

Expert AI 5.0
Cannot Win. Help?
Prior to downloading this mod, I had won 4 of my 5 games played. I have lost all 4 games (as Germany) on Expert AI mod.

I always lose the ground war. I usually manage Air Superiority by focusing Fighters and CAS for the first few years of the game. Regardless, I get bogged down in the Netherlands by huge stacks of allied forces I cannot defeat in combat. My troops slowly get pushed back, until the USSR joins in and steamrolls me.

The only game I defeated France was because Italy managed to push through and conquer Southern France.

My divisions are usually 7inf/2art early game, transitioned into Space Marines for inf, and 5 light/3heavy/2 motorized for armor.

I usually have around 400 factories in 1943, evenly split between civ and mil. I always do all the of the focuses to gain territory (puppet greece, annex yugoslavia, etc.) before attacking Poland, usually starting the war in late 41/early 42.

TL;DR Any advice on how to properly win a ground war in Europe as Germany would be appreciated.
Last edited by RalphRoberts; 7 Sep, 2017 @ 5:24pm
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Kondi  [developer] 15 Sep, 2017 @ 11:59pm 
Originally posted by RalphRoberts:
Prior to downloading this mod, I had won 4 of my 5 games played. I have lost all 4 games (as Germany) on Expert AI mod.

I always lose the ground war. I usually manage Air Superiority by focusing Fighters and CAS for the first few years of the game. Regardless, I get bogged down in the Netherlands by huge stacks of allied forces I cannot defeat in combat. My troops slowly get pushed back, until the USSR joins in and steamrolls me.

The only game I defeated France was because Italy managed to push through and conquer Southern France.

My divisions are usually 7inf/2art early game, transitioned into Space Marines for inf, and 5 light/3heavy/2 motorized for armor.

I usually have around 400 factories in 1943, evenly split between civ and mil. I always do all the of the focuses to gain territory (puppet greece, annex yugoslavia, etc.) before attacking Poland, usually starting the war in late 41/early 42.

TL;DR Any advice on how to properly win a ground war in Europe as Germany would be appreciated.
Hey. Missed your thread due to this damn Steam page set up.

To defeat France, you need a good amount of tank divisions with nearly full land doctrine and you should directly control them to create a quick push through the low countries. It looks like your tank divisions could be improved a lot. You should have at least over 10 fully equipped tank divisions, preferably with 41s tank tech. If you use 20 width divisions, you could use 7/3 med/not divisions for example. With heavy tanks you could use less tanks and more sp. artillery. Light tanks are generally not worth using in situations like these. Using higher width tank divisions is a good idea as well.

With a well set up tank force, you should be able to force your way through BENELUX before the allies can dig in there.
RalphRoberts 16 Sep, 2017 @ 12:19am 
Originally posted by Chondrite:
Originally posted by RalphRoberts:
Prior to downloading this mod, I had won 4 of my 5 games played. I have lost all 4 games (as Germany) on Expert AI mod.

I always lose the ground war. I usually manage Air Superiority by focusing Fighters and CAS for the first few years of the game. Regardless, I get bogged down in the Netherlands by huge stacks of allied forces I cannot defeat in combat. My troops slowly get pushed back, until the USSR joins in and steamrolls me.

The only game I defeated France was because Italy managed to push through and conquer Southern France.

My divisions are usually 7inf/2art early game, transitioned into Space Marines for inf, and 5 light/3heavy/2 motorized for armor.

I usually have around 400 factories in 1943, evenly split between civ and mil. I always do all the of the focuses to gain territory (puppet greece, annex yugoslavia, etc.) before attacking Poland, usually starting the war in late 41/early 42.

TL;DR Any advice on how to properly win a ground war in Europe as Germany would be appreciated.
Hey. Missed your thread due to this damn Steam page set up.

To defeat France, you need a good amount of tank divisions with nearly full land doctrine and you should directly control them to create a quick push through the low countries. It looks like your tank divisions could be improved a lot. You should have at least over 10 fully equipped tank divisions, preferably with 41s tank tech. If you use 20 width divisions, you could use 7/3 med/not divisions for example. With heavy tanks you could use less tanks and more sp. artillery. Light tanks are generally not worth using in situations like these. Using higher width tank divisions is a good idea as well.

With a well set up tank force, you should be able to force your way through BENELUX before the allies can dig in there.

I generally only micro a few breakthrough divisions at a time, I will try to slow the pace down and more heavily micro manage.

Thank you for your advice, I will apply it to my future matches and experiment with higher width medium/heavy tank divisions. :)
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