A few problems i have with hoi4... the battleplan system feels just not right.. maybe its just the AI moving my units to really STUPID locations. I want to use my tanks on flanks, to have the possibilty to encircle enemy troops. Now the AI is moving them into forrests, swamps and hills. If i micro my units per hand, it feels really "weird" doing so, compared to hoi3. It feels like it wasnt made for that.
Basically, you assign your 20 divs to a leader, put a frontline and a attack line, but it feels like WW1. The units are just fighting on 1 Front, there is no break through on flanks, encirclements or other deep strategies invovled.
Basically, i run the battleplan and go AFK untill i conquered the nation. Wow.
Then the trading system makes 0 sense in my eyes. Why would you trade civil factories for goods? huh? What is this even.
The Territories are too big, lack of depth here.
The Bombers bomb areas .. they are too big. I want to precise bomb locations - also lack of depth here.
And now a very subjective topic; The big cluster♥♥♥♥ of units... i need really the counters back from Hoi3. This is really bad for my eyes if i see that 500 divisions on the front of different nations .. i see NOTHING. Its waaay to colorful and looks like a unicorn ♥♥♥♥ on the map...
Not to mention the terrible AI- the very unhistorical stuff*, the Tech tree is too simple... its simple , thats good, but its TOO simple.
(*which is fine in the unhistorical mode but not in the historical mode)
The National Focus tree is... yea. I got through everything there by mid 41 (?) or a bit less even.
Also mentioned, select 200 divisions and put them in 1 Leader. - What? Come on. guess i dont need to say anything here.
All in all it feels more like a Fantasy world settled mid 1900s where this game takes place. Tibet and tannu tuwa can make nukes 1946 lol.
The bugs, the really dumb AI and other things i wont mention since this will be fixed with patches etc.. thats why always keep it on the game mechanics.
And OP; ask this same question in the hoi3 forums: people there will vouch for hoi3 instead of 4. Here its the opposite :) Many people here barelay played hoi3 except a few, because they didnt like it, which is completly fine, but like 4 now and call it the better game. But; just cause you like it more than hoi3, doesnt make it the better game per se.
If you are a true wargame player, a hardcore strategy player, then you would definately recommend hoi3 over hoi4 because hoi3 is exactly that.
Many people who enjoy Hoi4, i mean just look at their profiles, they played a lot EUIV and CK2 ( no offense at this point ) and barely any hoi3. Thats probably why people say its for "casuals" because either you like wargames or you just dont. Now this game feels streamlined, half of wargame but not really , some fancy icons and all these things which actually shouldnt be in there. Or they are completly new to the franchise and say Hoi4 is the better game, while its not. Neither from the perspective of the franchise, nor of genre.
I say, you have depth in hoi3, a lot of things you need to take care of - its the perfect ww2 grand strategy sim from this perspective - and this is what its all about - the franchise. ( was ).
BUT: Hoi4 isnt a bad game, imo its not worth the hoi title, and is a bad game in the franchise, its surely fun. For me aswell.
but:
Seeing how the AI is moving my tank divisions into swamps and hills, that really grinds my gears.
I know i know not everything in this game is bad. Production tab is actually pretty good and other things awell, the weather-system is really good made e.g. there are snowstorms , sandstorms, wihch you get different negative values on your attacks , or different attrition values etc.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/394360/d ... 266/?ctp=2