Hearts of Iron III vs Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi

[Hube]

Ok, I want to get the game and all dlc on sale. But should I buy Hearts of Iron III or Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi? or both? What is the difference for them? Is there link for game bundle?

[GIJoe597]

You "should" get and all you need are the game, HOI III and the 3 actual expansion. Semper Fi, For The Motherland and Their Finest Hour. All the rest are garbage money grabs.

Those three include all fixes/patches you need.

[Hube]

the thing is "semper fi" not in proposed DLC's list. it's not marked as DLC either. other dlc marked as they are DLC for "semper fi"...

[GIJoe597]

Before they sold out to Steam, Paradox made HOI III. They then made the 1st expansion. Semper Fi. It includes fixes and additions to the game. The 2nd expansion For The Motherland was made which used the new code from SF and improved/added even more things. Finally the last expansion was Their Finest Hour. This used the code/changes from the two previous expansions and improved even more. These three must be used in conjunction, meaning you cannot use TFH and not have FTM and SF. It requires code/changes from the previous expansions.

Here you can see the game and the three expansions and what they added to the game.
https://hoi3.paradoxwikis.com/Hearts_of_Iron_3_Wiki



All the other crap was added to make money and is purely cosmetic.


By the way. the GOG.com version works better and already includes podcat.exe file. This is a file made by one of the developers after the game was no longer "officially" supported. It allows this 13 year old, 32 bit game to work better on modern 64 bit systems.

The Steam version does not include that. You will need to register on the Paradox forums, to see Tech Support for HOI III. Go to the thread named MEGATHREAD. It has a decade of fixes/help for the game. In there you will find podcat.exe.

[Hube]

thank you for the info!