Things I wish i'd known sooner (or at least read the manual) :p

[Steevodeevo]

Hi,

I've noticed quite a few new players recently which is great and many are asking questions on the forums and in the game chat that I learned about the hard way as I'm notoriously bad at reading manuals and not a particularly good player. That said; there is also stuff I've picked up due to playing HoS an awful lot so I thought I'd post some thoughts up just in case it helps anyone at all.

Val & vet players: forgive me for stating the obvious in some cases and duplicating stuff from the manual but for people like me who tend to dive in and ask questions later, it may be of some use.

- Units on higher ground allows you to see further.

- The tile type marker button (or the forward slash '/' key) which shows villages, towns, cities, factories & ports is exceptional for planing unit upgrades 'on the road' and determining future loading and unloading points.

- OoB can be given a hotkey (I chose 'B') to save a lot of mouse clicks and then you will be inclined to use it regularly to filter unit types for inputting commands (such as setting a filter for all fighters or Subs, etc.)

- The OoB is indispensable for sorting on your low strength units so you can repair them or move them out of danger before losing them. Repair is way better value than replace - assuming you can replace, as in some game types your starting units are all you get, except for trophies.

- If you find yourself moving forward too slowly on a stand alone map (no unit recruitment) due to rivers and strong points, upgrade a light infantry to Engineer at a large town, city, factory or Port.

- If you can't reinforce or resupply a unit, selecting the unit and hovering the mouse over any supply button shows a red-line to the route of nearest supply and so shows you what enemy unit(s) are blocking it off and you can hopefully deal with them.

- Surrounding / flanking a unit with multiple units really works superbly in improving damage inflicted, as does having an adjacent Recon unit.

- Try upgrading your basic AA units to mobile and a 2-hex range model if you have the gold, I think it's well worth the cost.

- Germans AT guns struggle (especially early in the game) against British Matilda's and Soviet KV's. German 88mm AA are very effective in the game, as they were historically, as AT units if you defend them well (no armour). Many of the other nation's AA units are useful as back up AT as well if you can safely get them close.

- Short of gold? scrap/sell obsolete captured trophies and any static units you no longer need in the rear.

- Use hotkeys for resupply, saves a lot of mouse clicking. My ammo, fuel, fuel & ammo are on 1, 2, 3, on the number row.

- Don't forget to build the very cheap Supply ships to refuel your warships rather than leave them stranded.

- The red and green numbers on the bottom right of the unit tile are attack range and movement points.

- Hitting the 'H' key (hide units) is great for finding airfields for your Aircraft to refuel and re-base and also for spotting bridges, destroyed or otherwise hiding under units.

- Hovering the mouse over a ranged unit shows a halo of its attack range.

- Hovering over a HQ unit shows its influence range.

- Hold left Ctrl to see the detailed damage calculation, including any buffs & debuffs from terrain and morale and also the HQ unit's buff if in range.

- Do a final cycle through your units with the [ and ] keys when you're done with your turn and before hitting 'next turn'. I always miss something useful or important otherwise and it will only take a few seconds if all of your units have been given orders..

- In campaigns, don't forget to check your Policies often, you can forget and accumulate a lot of HQ points that can be put to good use.

- If you're short of ground attack aircraft and can't buy more, fighters are OK against Artillery and Heavy Infantry units and can also be upgraded with bombs, missiles and fuel tanks.

- Move your Air Recon in two stages, this way, should you spot something interesting on the edge of view, you an head towards it, or away from it if it's a threat.

- If you spot an enemy airfield with your Air Recon, try to stay 1 or 2 hexes away from it as this is where the AI tends to place its AA units.

- if you can, spend your spare gold at the end of a turn, or as late as possible. Don't run out of a repair and supply budget by buying new units too early in the turn.

- The gold earned per turn by buildings is shown in the top left of the screen when you hover over the building with the mouse. It helps you plan which enemy structures to attack to boost income as quickly and efficiently as possible.

- It takes 3 turns to repair a damaged structure tile. The building won't repair or resupply your unit or generate gold until fully repaired. the 'tile damage modifier' number in the tile info panel provides an indication of how much more damage there is left to repair.

- Check the Settings before playing, there is an huge range of options for you to turn on and off and many are critical to enjoying a scenario fully; such as do you wan't to be able to Research units or use historical timelines for new model availability, and do you want your aircraft to crash when they run out of fuel before reaching a friendly airfield.

- To record a Score you need to have the right settings selected. The game you are about to play shows a trophy with a red X through it if your selected options prevent a score* being recorded.

- Scores are simply the number of turns taken by each player to win the map. The game options needed to qualify for a score provides for a 'level playing field' so the number of turns is as good an indicator of performance as any.

- be careful when bombing enemy units on bridges, you will often destroy the bridge as well.

- Fighters attacking dug in infantry won't reduce entrenchment.

- I believe (I haven't used it yet) if you want access to a factory port or rail hub but an AI allied unit is sitting on it, you can swap them to gain access.

[James]

Good list of tips to quickly read through!
I enjoy learning while playing, but I also did read the manual. It is well structured and covers most of it. But there are a few things that the manual misses or you simply don't pick up while reading it.

- Engineers can not deploy depots in enemy territory (behind enemy lines)

[sl_sarnov]

Good tips, a few questions if i may:

are the policies unlocked active just for the current scenario (of the campaign) or they are transferred to the next one?

Also, "The gold earned per turn by buildings is shown in the top left of the screen when you hover over the building with the mouse. It helps you plan which enemy structures to attack to boost income as quickly and efficiently as possible." i was wondering how that works. I am currently playing Germany vs Poland from the 1939 campaign, I started with 700 gold income, i captured around 10 towns( 5 gold income each) and 5 cities (15 gold income each) and at turn 18 i have 750 gold income (so 50 income more) which suggests to me that it doesn't simply accumulate (maybe the difficulty setting, hardcore in my game plays a role)?

There is manpower cap option in settings, does it apply to enemies as well and where can i see the number in game for my faction?

And a few tips i figured out too late in my first game: different hexes provide different armor bonus to the land units that occupy them: for example thin forest or airfield give 5 armor, thick forest or a city give 15 armor which was huge in my game so far.

The best tip for me is: "Hold left Ctrl to see the detailed damage calculation, including any buffs & debuffs from terrain and morale and also the HQ unit's buff if in range." There you can see the tank penalty debuff which is considerable: -15 I believe.

[James]

Originally posted by sl_sarnov:

*snip*
I started with 700 gold income, i captured around 10 towns( 5 gold income each) and 5 cities (15 gold income each) and at turn 18 i have 750 gold income (so 50 income more) which suggests to me that it doesn't simply accumulate (maybe the difficulty setting, hardcore in my game plays a role)?

No, your income does not add up the way you would expect by simply capturing towns. If I am not totally wrong, there is a one-time reward corresponding to the town gold value, then only a small percentage of that "5" or "15" actually contributes to your per-turn-income. That's why you see a very slow increase of your turn income.

It is better to think that you deny the enemy that total value per-turn-income, because for the opponent the "5" or "15" value corresponds to the "loss" per-turn.

You can however, boost your income per turn by capturing towns in the settings before you start a scenario. There is a slider that can be set to like 400% that would reward you with near hex-values...

I am not completely sure how this works yet, so please help me out if anybody else has a good grip on the captured towns economy effects.

[sl_sarnov]

It is better to think that you deny the enemy that total value per-turn-income, because for the opponent the "5" or "15" value corresponds to the "loss" per-turn.
It makes sense to be like that because while i got around 50 gold income increase, the enemy went from 3500 to 3000 gold income.

[James]

Yes, I like it the way it is set up.

[sl_sarnov]

Here is something i didn't know: you can swap the position of two units (tried it with infantry) as long as both have enough movement points? : you select one, hold shift and click on the other.

[Steevodeevo]

One i forgot, I believe (I haven't used it yet) if you want access to a factory port or rail hub but an AI allied unit is sitting on it, you can swap them to gain access.