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* Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday FAQ       By OrangeP47                            *
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Table of Contents

I. Introduction (1trod)
A. About the Author/Copywright/Contact Info (Atacc)
B. Sites Allowed to Host (Sath1)
C. Version History (vh111)
D. Review (Rev11)
II. Basics/Set Up (Bsu22)
A. Chosing a Country (cac22)
B. Quick Start (qs222)
C. Playing Styles (ps222)
III. Peace Time (pt333)
A. Starting Builds (sb333)
B. Diplomacy in Peace (dip33)
C. Inteligence in Peace (iip33)
D. Research in Peace (rip33)
IV. War Time (wt444)
A. Mobilization. (m4444)
B. Units (u4444)
C. Inteligence in War (iiw44)
D. Diplomacy in War (diw44)
E. Tactics (t4444)
F. Research in War (riw44)
V. Country Specific (cs555) (comming soon!)
VI. War Stories/Short AARs (wssa6) (need submissions)


I. Introduction (1trod)

Hello and welcome to my HOI2:Doomsday FAQ.  It is still expanding and mail from
readers is always appreciated.  At current, it doesn't cover much ground, but
updates and help from readers like YOU can help.

A. About the Author/Copywright. (Atacc)

I've been playing for a while now and have written many AArs at the Paradox
fourm.  I like helping people, and reading FAQs for fun even if I know the 
stuff, so I didn't like it when I saw there wasn't a FAQ here yet.

If you'd like to contact me, email me at jack @ wpfranklin dot com (put it in
format, I don't wany any internet bots getting my email)

Copyright 2006 John Proffitt

See that up there? Thats the copyright so that means you can't use my work 
without asking me. Chances are I will allow you to use it so just ask and save
everyone some trouble.

B. Sites Allowed to Host (sath1)

Here are all the sites I allow at current to host this if they want it.  If you
have a site for FAQs and want it on your site, email me and theres a 99% 
chance I'll say you can host it.

www.gamefaqs.com
The Paradox fourms
The HOI2 wiki
Super Cheats
www.cheatcc.com

C. Version History (vh111)

.5 7/22/06 18 kb

- Start

.75 8/05/06 23 kb

- Added Playing Styles Section
- Fixed some spelling/grammer

First version.

D. Review (Rev11)

HOI2 and Doomsday are Grand Stratagy games.  Basicly you control one country 
in the world in every aspect pretty much.  I enjoy it as there is so much stuff
you can do in it.  So much that if you started playing when your 10, you'd die
before you could do everything even if you played 24/7.  One of the fun aspects
is war (not surprisingly) as you can have almost infinite options when attacking
or defending.  I'd keep going on teh good features, but there are so many its
hard to list them all.  Basicly, the possibilitys are endless.  Plus, you can
edit it, and Doomsday even has an editor.  I give the game a 10/10.

II. Basics/Set Up (Bsu22)

A. Chosing a Country (cac22)

This is probably the most important step of your game.  It can really determine
the course of the game.  To start off, we will look at Majors and Minors. Majors
are big countries, the big players, like the USA or Germany.  As the you will be
right in the action, having lots of wars, being the big trading partner, and 
the fate of the world can literly rest on your sholders.  However that can be a
lot of work and very overwhelming and tough on someone who is new to the game.
That's where Minors come in.  Minors are small countries that, while sometimes
playing a big role, are less tiersome to manage and can make for an out of the
way game.  There are also some countries that can be called disasters waiting
to happen, such as France or Poland.  These countries will give you a fight for
your life if you play as them, but can be a good chalange for veterns.

B. Quick Start (qs222)

This is a set by step guide if you want to get right into the playing with as
little as starting settings changed as possible.

1.  Select country
2.  Pause
3.  Go to the diplomacy screen, make one slider move, change some ministers if 
    you want.
4.  Go to the tech screen, set your research.
5.  Go to the production screen.  Set consumer goods so your just making money,
    if it isn't in the red.  Allocate any reinforcements or supplies you need
    (rember to check to lower reinforcments later if your at peace) and devide 
    remaining IC between production and upgrades if you need any.  Then set your
    builds.
6.  Go to the inteligence screen and send a spy to yourself.
7.  Organize your millitary (optional)
8.  Play

C. Playing Styles (ps222)

A good thing to know is what type of player you are.  You may thing you know,
but unless you look at it closely, you could be biased about it.  This is a
small section to help you figure out your playing style, with common traits of
players, and some tactics you may like.  Also, playing online, it helps if you
know what type of player your opponate is, so you know how to counter him/her.

1)  cautious Player

The cautious player is one who likes to play it safe, but still go on the 
attack.  They rarly attack defencive lines, and are ususal intelligent and very
stratigic.

Common stratagies:

A)  Slide - This is a tactic I use quite a bit.  It is where you only attack
from a province that has just one enemy province next to it, so you can use all
of your forces.  You can also use support attack.  Good places for this are 
along coasts.

B)  Narrow Front - Ccautious players like to fight on a narrow front, such as
North Africa, where there is little chance to be flanked or encircled.  
Another place would be the Baltic area if Poland gives into demands.

How to counter - Keep them off ballance.  Overwhelm them with new fronts.  After
some time they may have a information overload or switch into defecive mode, and
that is the beginning of the end for them.

2)  Defencive Player

Not to be confused with the cautious player.  The defencive player likes to sit
behind forts, like the Magiot Line, or set up a line in the mountains to defend.
The main quality is the lack of initive.

Common stratagies:

A)  Forts - Defencive players like to sit behind forts, simple as that.  A thing
often done is to extend the Magiot Line as France.

B)  Mountains - Mountains are a defencive player's best friend.  Without special
troops mountains are very hard to take.  A good example of use of these would be
France attacking Spain for whatever reason.  The mounain area will stop attacks
cold.

How to counter - Break through their line, and the will mostly likely fall to
pieces.  If your having trouble doing that, consider paratroopers or a landing
in the rear.

3)  Agressive Player

An agressive player makes lots of attacks, and takes quite a few risks, and will
exploit any opprounity.  However, they do have a sence of tactics and will not
be foolish.

Common stratagies:

A)  Full front assault - Simply moving the entire front along.  An example would
be in the early invasion of Russia, where Germany can easily push the Russians
back to Moscow quickly.

B)  Large encirclment - Enciricling large areas, sometimes with armor way out
ahead with no support or coverage of the flanks.

C)  Darring moves - Darring, but well though out moves, like using paratroopers,
or distractionary attacks or landings.

How to counter - The best way to do this is to play it safe.  Make sure you
don't give him/her any chance to take advantage of anything.  Guard your rear,
as paratroopers are almost a sure bet to be used.

4)  Gung Ho Player

The gung ho player charges recklessly into danger without much thought.  The 
main danger is the unpredictibility of such a character.

Common stratagies:

A)  Reckless charge - This type of player realy doesn't use stratagy, he/she
just charges headlong into you.

How to counter - While being on the reciving end of massive spam attacks can be
scary, you can easily outsmart such an opponate and do not need to worry too
much.

5)  Unconventional Player

The unconventional player uses tricks, exploits, and downright weird tactics.
The dangerious unpredictibility of the Gung Ho Player along with some brains to
make this the most dangerious type of player.

Common stratagies:

A)  Exploits - Often exploits or "gamey" things will be used.

B)  Paratroopers/Rear Landings - Distraction tacitcs are used alot, even with no
regard to saving the troops.

C)  Flanking in no flanking areas - Self-explaintory.  Like actualy sending
troops the long way around the desert in Africa.  Simply put, they WILL find a
way around you and you won't know about it!

D)  Air Power Black Hole - Having no troops on the front line and then killing
all the advancing troops with air power.

E)  Hit and Run - Landing/Paradropping troops to undefended airfield in hopes
of scoring big.

How to counter - You can't.  You must just hope you're a good enough player, and
try and be unconventional yourself.

III. Peace Time (pt333)

A. Starting Builds (sb333)

Most countries start out at peace, or in a war thats very easy to win.  That 
means you can focus on industry early on, but being at peace has a nasty mod on
it that reduces your ICs.

First thing you should build depends on your situation.  Most of the time it 
will be factories you want to build.  I usualy use 3/4 of the ICs under 
production to build them, and build them until one year before the war.  The 
rest can go to filling gaps in your unit structure, like if you have one int.
fighter and want a group of four, then you build three more.  Once that is done,
you can build units as you like, witch is where the countries vary greatly.

B. Diplomacy in Peace (dip33)

Peace time is where diplomacy is most important.  Here you want to make
alliances and things to secure your other boarders when you do go to war.  Many
events also help you in this catagory.  Annother important aspect is trading.
You want to get lots of trades to stockpile resourses.  Preferably, trade with
countries you arn't going to war with, or even better, with allies.  This will
assure that you get contined resourses while at war.  A good idea is to trade
for alot of supplies, that way you can use the ICs that would ususaly be spent
making them on other things.  Annother thing you can do is to demand millitary
access from someone.  This is usefull if you plan on using them to invade a far
off place, like Germany invading Norway via Sweeden.

C. Inteligence in Peace (iip33)

Peace time is the time you want to spend sending spys to future enemys.  The 
benefit of this is that you have the stats on them before war starts so you 
know what you're getting into.  Also, you want those stats when the war starts,
not a month or two later.  You can also attempt some of the actions if you
relation is good enough, but you should save that for war.

D. Research in Peace (rip33)

Research is easy to describe by priorities.  Here is a simple list of what you
should have the tech slots doing.  If you don't have very many slots, then 
strike a balance.  Things at the top are the most important, things at the 
bottom are less important, but remember to let them be researched sometimes,
especialy when you are about to go over the historical year for the more 
important areas.

1- Industy - very important to get more resources
2- aircraft/air doctorine - very important, and most countries don't start off
   down these paths.  Sometimes I have 4 slots working on a combination of
   these.  If your a minor, or not planning on building new planes, focus on
   doctorines to get the most out of your old planes.  Of course, you can 
   always upgrade.  The fact of the matter is, there are just so many techs here
   that most majors will need to have atleast one dedicated slot to keep up.
3- Armor/Artillery - Most countries arn't far down this either, and you want
   good stuff before the war.  If your a minor country, I recomend setting a
   stopping point and focusing on other areas after that, especialy if you arn't
   going to build tanks anyway.
4- Infantry - You always want the best for the vanilla infantry, and atleast 
   basic marine and para.  If your not a major country, you can ingnore special
   infantry.
5- Naval Doctorines - For countries with a bad navy, you want to make your small
   ammount of ships as powerful as possible.  For large navy countries, you do
   not want some small country sinking your ships with its puny navy.
6- Land Doctorine - Just keep up.
7- Naval - New ships are good, but its not that high on the list.  If your only
   going to research one type of ship, go for carriers as the CAG can be 
   upgraded, assuming you HAVE carriers that is.
8- Secret weapons - In peace, you shouldn't be far enough along to have any, and
   they probably won't be important until you are at war.

Remember, this is just a general stratagy.  Some situations call for varrying 
the stratagy.  And if you are a late war player, like the USA, you may be able 
to afford a focused path to some superweapon and have it ready early, like nukes
or jets.

IV. War Time (wt444)

A. Mobilization. (m4444)

Mobilization is where you get your troops ready for war.  It is not represented
by any factor ingame like some games, but there are certain things you need to
do.  First of all lets talk about reasons to mobilize.

1)  You are about to start a war.
2)  The historical dates for war are approaching.
3)  A nation just canceled its non-agression pact.
4)  A nation is threatining an ally/close minor.
5)  A war is going on nearby that could spill over.  IE Belgium should mobilize
    before they get DOWed.
6)  Spy activity in your country, THAT IS HARMFULL.  Don't look at the 50 or so
    spys you start with and start DOWing people.

Now that we covered that lets go over how to mobilize.  First, take care of any
last minute upgrading/reinforcing from befor the war.  Next, get your troops in
good positions, weather for defence or offence.  While this is happining, make
sure there are no unsecured areas or flanks.  (think Belgium again)  If all that
is done you are ready for war.  Its a realy easy step but don't forget it.  It 
is no fun to have your entire army in you capital miles away from the front when
war is declaired.

B. Units (u4444)

Here I will go over important units.  For tactics and uses see the tactics area.

HQs - If you can afford them, very important.  When commaned by a General or
Field Marshal, they double the comamnd limit, allowing more divisions to attack
effectivly.

Infantry - The bread and butter unit.  You want atleast model 41 infantry to be
a contender in WWII.  Lots of people don't go higher than that but its up to you
if you want to keep going all the way to 51 or whatever.

Motorized - Sort of a poor man's mech troops.  They arn't as strong as infantry,
but are fast, so good for encirclements.

Mech. - Mechanized are sort of an advanced Motorized.  They are hard units like
tanks.

Tanks - The king of land units.  Very fast and good for encirclements and packs
alot of firepower.

Marines - A must if you need to invade from the sea.

Paras -  Good for surprise encirclemtns, or tanking provinces behind the lines.
They also go good with a landing behind an sea invasion.

Mountaineers - Do good in mountains and hills.  Good if your fighting in a range
of mountains.

Interceptors - Good for taking out bombers.

Fighters - Multi-puprose.  Good for enemy fighters or interceptors.

Esocrts - In vanilla they were divisions you could acompany with bombers.  In DD
they are brigades that you can attach to bombers

Tac. Bombers - They pack a punch aginst enemy ground forces.

CAS - Like mini-Tac. Bobmers.  Not as powerfull, but they are cheep and build
fast.

Strat. Bobmers - Good for taking out instillations, like factories.

Nav bombers - good for taking ships out.

Jets - Not a type, but all classes do have jet varrients.

Transports - There are air transports, that can air supply too, and sea 
transports.

Destroyers - Ships that are good aginst subs.

Light Cruiser - Good defending aginst aircraft.

Heavy Cruiser - Has guns that are mildly useful in naval combat.

Battle Cruiser - A cheepo battleship that can be good, but for nearly the same
price you can get a battleship so why bother.

Battleship - The big surface player.  Very good at ship to ship comabt and 
shore bombbardment.

Carrier - Very long range and that makes it good.  If you have a carrier in a
fleet it will stay back and attack from afar.  Arguably the best type of ship.

Escort Carrier - Like a mini carrier.  Not sure about it but it apperently goes
good with Battleship fleets.

Subs - Good at convoy rading but not much esle.

C. Inteligence in War (iiw44)

War time is where inteligence shines.  Since you are already at war, you can't
really provoke your enemy any more.  Here I will introduce the spy scale as I
call it.

1-3 spys = sketchy intelegence, varries quite a bit with each action

4-6 spys = good intelligence, though still not good enough to do most actions

7-9 spys = very good inteligence, you basicly get 100% knowledge of enemy tech

10 spys = best you can have, any option has a chance to succeed.

You don't just get stats from inteligce, you can do actions too.  Some you can
do quite easily, others you need atleast 6-8 to even have a chance.  Here are 
some useful ones.

Coup - About the hardest to pull off.  It changes the governemnt to more like 
yours and it can join your alliance.  Sometime you have to save and reload to
make it work properly after it succeeds.

Smear Campaign - increases dissent in their country

Influence world opinion - causes them to lose relation points with other
countries.

Steal blueprints - One of my favorites, and relitivly easy too!  It takes a 
random blueprint and give it to you.

Assainate minister - kills a minister (and if he has more then one position, all
of him).  I ususaly don't use it as they could have a minister with better stats
that replaces him.

If I forgot any actions please tell me.  Just the actions that damage the enemy.

D. Diplomacy in War (diw44)

Your main focus of diplomacy in war should be maintaining trade to keep up the
flow of resorces.  Nuetral countries don't like to join your alliance if you're
at war, but it is possible.  If you're willing to spend the time any money, you
could give the enemy a nasty surprise when that country on the other side of him
joins aginst him.

Another thing under diplomacy is the peace talks.  You can demand territroy if
you are doing good, offer a white peace if its a stalemate, or beg for mercy if
you're getting killed.  And, if you rather get into war then out of it, you can
guarinte the independace of a country about to get attacked, then DOW with no
penalties.

E. Tactics (t4444)

Of course, whats war without tactics!  Here are some common and some not so
common stratagies.

Land

Encirclment - The most common tactic.  This is very vital because if you just
push them back, they get stronger and more compact, where if you encircle and
destroy, those divisions are gone and won't come back to haunt you.  You can do
small, one province encirclements, or large, minor country swallowing
encirclments.  One way of doing so is the pincer movement.  This is where you
hold the front in the middle and sweep the sides forward to pokcet a large area.
If your up aginst the coast you can do so, but with only one pincer.  If you
almost have a large encirclent done, but don't have the power to close it, or
you want a quick surprise encirclemnt, you can use Paratroopers to make a quick
encirclment.  Another type is technicaly not an encirclement.  In countries with
a wide, one province wide area, such as Norway, you can land troops in the
middle, effectivly cutting the country in two.

Over run - This is where you use fast troops to advance so fast, you already
have the province the enemy retreated to, thereby killing them when they arrive.
The key, as with most tactics, is speed.

Forced retreat - This is a combined arms stratagy.  Force the enemy to retreat,
then bomb them as they retreat.  Its very effective as they arn't dug in any
longer.

Sea

ASW - Anti-sub Warfare is simple.  A big group of destoryers works well.  Put
them on ASW mission and let em fly.

CTF - Carrier Task Forces are arguably the most powerful type of fleet.  As the
name suggests, it revolves around the carrier.  You want a good amound of
carriers, around 6 or so, a few Heavy Cruisers in case of surprise, some light
cruisers and some destoryers.  You can use this for about any task at hand.

SAG - Surface Action groups revolve around the Battleship.  Set it up like a
CTF but replace the Carriers with Battleships.  SAGs aren't as versitile as CTFs
and are good aginst other SAGs only pretty much.  Unfortunatly, for nations like
Germany, its sometimes the only choice.  If you want to make a SAG, but can't
afford battleships, you can use heavy cruisers.

Air

Composition - The best way to operate air untis is to have all the same time in
a group.  If you don't have the expasnion, escorts are the exception.

F. Research in War (riw44)

Research has different priorites in war.

1- Armor/Artillery - In war, tanks ahead of their time are good.  You must keep
   up if you are using tanks.  Having level II arm aginst level IV is no fun.
2- Aircraft/air doctorine - Still important.  Focus on the doctorines as you
   need the upgrade IC for reinforcments.
3- Secret Weapons - If your going to use them, you HAVE to keep working on them.
4- Naval Doctorine - Now is the time to get your ships up to speed as its too
   late to build new ones.
5- Land Doctorine - Keep it up there.
6- Industy - Its good to have the inteligence research to see your odds.  Some
   others could have some good bonuses for you.
7- Infantry - You can if you want, but you could use the massive ICs needed to
   upgrade all the infantry you have better somewhere else.
8- Naval - If you are at war, its too late to build new ships.

V. Country Specific (cs555) (comming soon!)

VI. War Stories/Short AARs (wssa6) (need submissions)

Here is how this section works.  You send me cool things you did in the game,
I put them here.  Simple right.  Look in the contact info for my email.