GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURfield commands located in thesame province - and thusmore than one officer - andthey both engage in the samebattle. This is handleddifferently depending onwhether they are attacking ordefending. When attacking,the highest-ranking officerdetermines how manydivisions may participate in thebattle without receiving thenasty effectiveness penalty forbeing overstacked; however,all other combat modifiers thata division receives are basedon the trait and skill levels oftheir immediate commanderand will be forfeited if he hastoo many divisions assigned tohim. Be sure to double-checkthat there is an officer ofsufficient rank to command allof the divisions involved in theattack in any instance whereyou use more than one fieldcommand to attack from asingle province.When two or more fieldcommands are defending,however, the field officers aretreated individually, andtheir ranks’ stacking limits areadded together to determinethe total number of divisionsthat may defend withoutincurring a stacking penalty.Remember that even if oneofficer has “empty spots” in hiscommand and can “assist”another officer who isoverstacked to eliminate thecombined forces’ overstackingpenalty, the divisions that aredirectly assigned to theoverstacked officer will loseany benefit from his skill ortraits.Let’s look at a situation whereyou have a lieutenant generalin a province with 3 divisionsassigned to his command, aswell as a major general in thatsame province with onedivision. While neither isindividually overstacked, thelieutenant general willcommand the entire force offour divisions if they jointlyattack another province andthus, for the purposes of theattack and defence effectivenessvalues in the attack, he isoverstacked and one of thedivisions will receive a 75%penalty. However, since eachindividual commander is withinhis command limit, any traitsand skill bonuses that theyhave will be applied to thedivisions that they commanddirectly. If they are defendingagainst an attack, their ratingsare combined and they wouldnot be overstacked.If we take a similar situationbut suppose that, in thisinstance, the lieutenantgeneral has 2 divisions andthe major general also has 2divisions, things get messy. Ifthey are attacking, thelieutenant general commandsthe entire force and will beoverstacked, and one divisionwill receive a -75% penalty.Further, neither of the majorgeneral’s divisions wouldreceive his skill or traitmodifiers because he ispersonally overstacked,. Thelieutenant general is notpersonally overstacked,120