izigame.me

Edit: I first wrote this review several years ago and it's continued to receive likes and awards but was no longer relevant to the current state of the game, so I've decided to update it to reflect how I feel about the game now (Autumn 2021).
The issues I identified originally:
1: Germany is far too weak: This was fixed as I suggested by increasing production and adding crippling morale penalties to France
2: The British Empire is hyper aggressive: This was also fixed by reducing Britain's production and adding penalties making it hard to militarise the UK before the war actually starts.
3: Air casualties are far too high: This has also been fixed and air casulaties are reasonable. Major nations should no longer be out of fighters in the first month of the war.
4: Balancing certain air missions seems to be off: This was largely fixed. I still think Strategic bombing is a waste of time - mostly because the upfront investment to even build strategic bombers is just too high (see my new criticisms below)
5: Naval stacking doesn't seem to cause a penalty: Penalties have been added, so it no longer makes sense to just have one doomfleet.
I stand by my original claim that these are balancing tweaks and they have been largely tweaked away.
I also identified that there was a problem with fuel not being treated as a consumable resource which removed many of the historical pressures and reasons why nations acted like they did. This was fixed by Paradox some time ago, and fuel is now a very real pressure for Germany and Japan as it was historically.
However, there are now some new and slightly annoying balancing tweaks which I'd like to see addressed:
1. There are too many research options and too few slots/research takes too long. As it currently is, they've added so many things to research, many of them very cool, but there's no way to research them without totally hobbling yourself. For example, historically the UK managed to keep on top of basically all sorts of aircraft designs, ship designs, medium, light and heavy tank designs (plus associated TDs), infantry equipment designs, and various secret projects like RADAR and nuclear weapons. In game there just isn't the capacity to do this. You're likely going to likely only research one type of tank (light then medium), one type of bomber (probably CAS or TAC), and probably fall behind on capital ships, due to the lack of research capacity. I have so far never bothered to even research scout planes because it feels like the research slot is always better deployed on something (anything) else. I think there should be some more ways to specialise national research. In HOI 3 this was through the research organisations giving particular bonuses. I think this should make a comeback via the 'concerns' in the politics menu - these already offer some bonuses in some cases but I think this should be extended greatly. I also think they should be easier to appoint earlier so that you can specialise earlier. Perhaps appointing your first concern for an area should be cheaper, but changing later more expensive.
2. Similarly, production even for very industrial nations like Germany doesn't feel strong enough to keep up with all the options. This obviously needs to be a limiting factor as it was historically but usually it just doesn't make sense to build any of the more esoteric units, e.g. swimming tanks, or self-propelled rocket artillery, because throwing factories at infantry equipment is *so much more important*. This leads to most nations playing the same - build infantry equipment, support equipment, trucks, artillery, fighters, CAS, medium tanks. Deviation is a great way to run out of equipment and lose the war. Obviously these pressures are key to how the game works, but it feels like there needs to be some sort of system to encourage diversification. Perhaps for example, factories could be more nuanced than 'military' or 'civilian' - a light arms factory is very different from a car factory. Perhaps a car factory could be re-purposed to produce vehicles but not guns.

I still think the mechanics are the best they've ever been. In comparison to HOI3 it's a far more streamlined experience, and managing your forces is so much easier. No more screwing around with endless levels of military hierarchy and hundreds and hundreds of generals who all become interchangeable anyway. Here there are only four levels - division, army, group and theatre - and you assign generals to armies and Field Marshalls to Groups. Similarly, while in HOI3 manageing your airforce was such an enormous pain, and the effects of air superiority so minor that it basically was not worth it, here air power is much much easier to control and project and will be central to your overall strategy. Navies have also had a makeover although I haven't yet played any major sea power so won't comment on their effectiveness.
There's also an entirely new production system which is 1: vastly superior and 2: makes a lot more sense. Whereas previously you "built" divisions, here each division requires particular equipment dictated by its design as well as time to train. In terms of equipment they need guns, supplies, artillery, anti-tank guns, and particular vehicles, all of which need to be produced by your production lines which you set up and control. The way that this equipment is then handled means that upgrades are simulated much more realistically. In HOI3 a brigade used the previous technology until 100% upgraded, and this made no sense: your Panzer 3s had little percentage meters which when filled magiced them into Panzer 4s, your infantry used 1936 weapons until *every single 1938 weapon they needed arrived* then switched. Here divisions use whatever they can get from the stockpile, meaning that your divisions take delivery of new equipment as it arrives and replace losses with whatever you have available. So for example if your tank production doesn't keep up, your panzer divisions will fill the missing slots with whatever old crap was sitting in the depot. Oh and about that time to train - if the Motherland needs divisions comrade, you can simply hand them a rifle from the pile and point them at the Germans...
Finally the AI is better in several respects. For example it is far better at naval invasions now (in fact, it's a bit too keen on them) so Britain doesn't sit around uselessly unless player controlled. It's also much better at manageing forces and maintaining a front line so it's not so prone to huge encirclements. It seems to handle terrain better too, and pick good places to push and excellent defensive positions (which can grind things to a halt). It also seems to be a lot less predictable and capable of pulling off some rather complicated plans - I saw, for example, Japan launch an enormous pincer maneuvre on China, invading from both the North and South and cutting the country in half, trapping most of the Chinese forces out of supply. It's had some problems in the past with over-committing on low priority fronts but it seems to have improved in this regard in recent patches.
Overall this is, in my opinion, *the* WW2 grand strategy game. I keep coming back to it and lose hours every time I do.