GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURModifiers ThatAffect BattleThere are a great manyfactors that will play a role inthe outcome of a battle.Almost all of these aremodifiers that are applied tothe attack and defenceeffectiveness values, thusaltering the number ofpossible shots you can fire oravoid each round. Some ofthese, like terrain modifiers,will remain constant throughoutthe course of a battle whileothers may have shorterdurations, such as night timepenalties, or changing weathereffects. It isn’t practical to listthem all here, and many havealready been mentionedearlier in the manual, so I willonly highlight a few of themore significant ones.Leadership will have a verylarge impact on the effectivenessof your forces. Someofficers have traits that willgive significant bonuses thatcan offset other penalties orgive certain types of divisionsan advantage, and an officerwith high levels of skill canalso give a substantial boostto these values. The biggestissue you’ll encounter, though,will be the nearly catastrophicpenalties incurred if yourleader is overstacked. Asyou’ll recall, each leader has arank and this rank willdetermine how many divisionshe can command withoutpenalty. This number isdoubled when an officer iswithin a one-province radius ofan active HQ division. If heexceeds his limit, all of thedivisions under his commandwill forfeit any bonuses that histrait or skills would normallyhave given them. Worse still,the “excess” divisions willreceive a 75% penalty to boththeir attack and defenceeffectiveness values. This willmake them very easy for theenemy to hit and also meansthat they aren’t likely to beable to shoot very many timesduring a round. When wemove on to look at morecomplex combats, we willdiscuss the effects of havingmultiple officers participatingon one side of a battle.Beyond the possible weatherand terrain modifiers - which,as detailed earlier, canoccasionally be nasty - thereis a large penalty applied tonight time attacks and, to asomewhat lesser degree,defence. Making anamphibious landing, crossinga river or parachuting out ofthe sky will also limit youreffectiveness, although thelatter has the benefit ofavoiding the very substantialpenalties incurred for attackinga fortification. National dissentwill also impose a noticeablepenalty on your forces if youallow it to rise. At low levels, itmay only hamper your forcesslightly, but the higher it rises,the more painful its effects willbecome. If you expect to beinvolved in many combats,you would be very welladvised to deal with yourdomestic situation as rapidlyas possible…or face theconsequences.There are a host of modifierssupplied by various technologicaladvances, particularlyby combat doctrines, as wellas by such things as yourcurrent ESE, the experience ofyour forces, and so on. Whileit might seem that most largemodifiers favour the defender,and that is actually the casefor simple battles such as theones we’re considering here,this can easily be offset inmore complex combats by anenvelopment factor, whichis applied when the attack islaunched across multipleprovincial borders. It will takesome time to become familiarwith all of the possiblesituations and resultingmodifiers, so my advice to youis to play the game, try variousalternatives, and learn fromexperience. Pay closeattention to the tooltip detailsduring combat as you’relearning, and you may want topause periodically to spendsome time reviewing them foreach division if a combat isn’tgoing quite the way that youthink it should.Combat EventsDuring each round of combat,there is a small chance that aspecial combat event will betriggered. When this happens,the Combat Details will displaythe event name in a small boxthat extends between the twoleaders’ portraits. Only onecombat event can be in effectat a time, and the effect lastsfor the next 8 hours. Thechance of a favourable eventhappening increases if youhave an HQ divisionparticipating in or adjacentto the battle.Counterattack: This is aconcerted attempt by thedefending side to launch aminor counter-offensive todisrupt the enemy’s plans.While the defenders will suffersomewhat higher strengthlosses during this period, theywill inflict significant organisationlosses on the attacker.Assault: This represents aparticularly forceful sustainedattack, where the attackers willsuffer higher strength lossesthan normal but will inflictmuch higher organisationdamage to the defenders.Encirclement: This indicatesthat the attacking force hasbriefly managed to pin downand encircle the defenders ina small area of the province.While this effect lasts, thedefenders will suffer muchhigher strength losses and theattacker will rarely suffer muchloss of organisation, althoughthey may sustain the normalstrength losses.Ambush: The attacker hasmanaged to ambush theenemy forces, inflicting muchhigher rates of strength and118