Player's Guide

Hearts of Iron with the Starfire Historical modification models some of the concepts of warfare that were displayed in World War II. Perhaps the most significant concept is that of "blitzkrieg" or lighting warfare. Germany demonstrated how combined arms warfare (infantry, armor and aircraft) is dramatically more effective than each alone. Infantry slogging against infantry leads to long battles of attrition. However effective usage of airpower to reduce your enemy's organization level allows rapid victories and breakouts. Armor can cut through infantry (until the infantry is upgunned with better anti-tank technologies).

In 1936 the Axis forces were preparing and moving toward war. Adolf Hitler feared the economic blockade of World War I and stockpiled resources to render Germany immune to such tactics. Hitler also envisioned short "lightning" campaigns. Hitler wished to wage the war as a series of quick victories and not long campaigns of attrition. This would be the key to German success and the failure to achieve quick victory in Russia the root of it's failure.

In 1936 Italy begins engaged in a war with Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Mussolini hoped to discover rich natural resource deposits to ease the Italian lack of virtually all strategic resources. (Historically Italy invaded in October 1935 and had defeated Haile Selassie's forces in March 1936.)

Historically China and Japan had been engaged in repeated conflicts in Asia. Hearts of Iron however starts these two powers out at peace (and with non-historical election outcomes Japan can remain surprisingly peaceful). If the historical election outcomes occur China and Japan will go to war in 1938.

July 18, 1936 - The Spanish regular army revolted against the Republican government resulting in the "Spanish Civil War". This conflict served as a training ground for learning and practicing modern warfare. The Germans benefitted the most from this experience (and in game gain many techs from these events). The French and Russians misunderstood the lessons of the Spanish civil war which lead them to deploy their armor poorly.

Automatic economic trades fire every three months on January 14th, April 14th, July 14th and October 14th of each year.

Bulgaria - sends 4 agriculture (rubber) per day to Germany, receives 0.8 supplies per day.

Germany - note there are automatic trades set up with Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Sweden. There are now events to give a slight disadvantage to conquering Bulgaria, Hungary or Romania (which should be allies).

Germany with:	Coal	Steel	Agriculture	Oil	Supplies
Bulgaria			4		-0.8
Hungary		10	10	1	-3.2
Italy	-55	-25	10		5.5
Portugal		27			-3
Romania			2	42.5	-2
Sweden		54			-6
Total	-55	66	26	43.5	-9.5

Hungary - ships 10 steel, 1 oil and 10 rubber per day to Germany, receives 3 supplies per day.

Italy with:	Coal	Steel	Agriculture	Oil	Supplies
Germany	55	25	-10		-5.5
Romania				12.5	-0.625
Total	55	25	-10	12.5	-6.1

Japan - the USA trades oil (55/day) and steel (25/day) to Japan (until the embargo).

Japan with:	Coal	Steel	Agriculture	Oil	Supplies
USA		25		55	-5.5

Total

Romania - trades oil and agriculture to Germany & Italy

Romania with:	Coal	Steel	Agriculture	Oil	Supplies
Germany			-2	-42.5	2
Italy				-12.5	0.625
Total	55	25	-10	12.5	-7.1

USA - the USA trades oil and steel to Japan (until the embargo). The USA is forced to join the allies in January 1943 so they don't sit out the war because of a brain dead UK AI.

USA with:	Coal	Steel	Agriculture	Oil	Supplies
Japan		-25		-55	5.5

Total

Coal to Oil conversion is expensive (avoid it!). Avoid over building your motorized, mechanized and armored divisions or beware of fuel shortages! (specifically Germany and Italy must be wary of this) Germany starts at a 6:1 Coal to Oil conversion rate. Most other countries start at a 8:1 ratio. Via technological advances this can be lowered to 5:1 and then 4:1.

Oil to Rubber conversion is generally cheaper now. Most countries start at a 1.0:0.8 Oil to Rubber conversion rate. Tech progression goes 1:1; 1:1.25; 1:1.5.

Italy - Italy begins at war, this means the world market is not available to the Italians for trading resources. Italy is dependent upon Germany and Romania for vital raw materials. Italy should attempt to conclude the conflict with Ethiopia as quickly as possible so that Italian agriculture can be traded for coal, steel and oil.

Germany - Germany starts with a signifcant technical advantage. Germany walks a fine line of using their initial advantages to build a powerful (unstoppable?) military, yet if Germany waits too long their advantages will begin to fade and the rest of the world will mobilize.

Russia - The Soviet Union faces a very illogical situation. To slow down the Germans and avoid being overrun, Russia must counter attack at poor odds and fight many "losing" battles to wear down the German Wehrmacht before they can penetrate too deeply into Russia.

Most significant is the raising of ground defense values to 999 to avoid an attacker overwhelming a defender to create battles that would only last hours. In the Starfire Historical Mod ground combat is far more predictable and less easy to exploit. This also allows larger soft attack and hard attack values (in combination with a modified ground defense efficiency) to allow much better combat values and more reasonable tech advances.

With our latest changes mountain terrain still provides excellent defensive positions but it's no longer such a dramatic effect.

"Rubber" is now "Agriculture" and economies rarely "melt down" due to lack of raw materials and horrible conversion rates.