Adrian Laguna wrote:For example, real life Germany never stood a chance in hell of surviving against a determined United States and Great Britain. Even if the Soviet Union fell - which might not have happened even if the Wehrmacht took Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad - I think the Germans still would have been fucked. But in Hearts of Iron you can win as Germany, hell you can win as Germany even if you take control of it in June 1944.
It's not really a balance issue, though - the US is still an industrial behemoth compared to Germany - as much as poor AI. Repelling invasions from the AI, for example, is trivial, since it never lands in force, and doesn't look for alternative landing sites, always using the same spot or two.
Hence why when I played tech-cheated Uber Poland against Great Britain, all it took for me to defend the entire coast of France were two divisions near Calais, which could easily smash any landing troops - since the AI would never land elsewhere, and always landed one division, which got smashed.
There are also some problems with the game mechanics themselves - for example, a stack is always destroyed when surrounded, even if the "encirclement" really means that it's in the middle of provinces that are nominally "yours", with
zero troops in them. Partisans are a joke - a few divisions are really all that you need to keep France under your boots as Germany, and even that isn't strictly necessary. Also, you can instantly unload heavy equipment from dozens of divisions in small, shithole ports - like the former example of Uber Poland, I landed 24 divisions near Newcastle, first taking the province with paratroopers, and three hours later - wham, I have armor, artillery and whatnot onshore, ready to fight and rampage all the way to London. Things like these make it trivial to exploit game mechanics in your favor.
Adrian Laguna wrote:BTW - Aren't there only two African states in HoI? Liberia (US puppet) and Ethiopia (about to be crushed by Italy).
There's also Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and South Africa. And despite everything, I don't think it's really possible to take over the world with them in HoI II, mostly due to the fact your tech teams are going to suck.