Hex of Steel – Useful Tips

Things I Wish I’d Known Sooner

I’ve noticed quite a few new players recently which is great and many are asking questions on the forums and in the game chat that I learned about the hard way as I’m notoriously bad at reading manuals and not a particularly good player.

That said; there is also stuff I’ve picked up due to playing HoS an awful lot so I thought I’d post some thoughts up just in case it helps anyone at all.

• Units on higher ground allows you to see further.
• The tile type marker button (or the forward slash ‘/’ key) which shows villages, towns, cities, factories & ports is exceptional for planing unit upgrades ‘on the road’ and determining future loading and unloading points.
• OoB can be given a hotkey (I chose ‘B’) to save a lot of mouse clicks and then you will be inclined to use it regularly to filter unit types for inputting commands (such as setting a filter for all fighters or Subs, etc.)
• The OoB is indispensable for sorting on your low strength units so you can repair them or move them out of danger before losing them. Repair is way better value than replace – assuming you can replace, as in some game types your starting units are all you get, except for trophies.
• If you find yourself moving forward too slowly on a stand alone map (no unit recruitment) due to rivers and strong points, upgrade a light infantry to Engineer at a large town, city, factory or Port.
• If you can’t reinforce or resupply a unit, selecting the unit and hovering the mouse over any supply button shows a red-line to the route of nearest supply and so shows you what enemy unit(s) are blocking it off and you can hopefully deal with them.
• Surrounding / flanking a unit with multiple units really works superbly in improving damage inflicted, as does having an adjacent Recon unit.
• Try upgrading your basic AA units to mobile and a 2-hex range model if you have the gold, I think it’s well worth the cost.
• Germans AT guns struggle (especially early in the game) against British Matilda’s and Soviet KV’s. German 88mm AA are very effective in the game, as they were historically, as AT units if you defend them well (no armour). Many of the other nation’s AA units are useful as back up AT as well if you can safely get them close.
• Short of gold? scrap/sell obsolete captured trophies and any static units you no longer need in the rear.
• Use hotkeys for resupply, saves a lot of mouse clicking. My ammo, fuel, fuel & ammo are on 1, 2, 3, on the number row.
• Don’t forget to build the very cheap Supply ships to refuel your warships rather than leave them stranded.
• The red and green numbers on the bottom right of the unit tile are attack range and movement points.
• Hitting the ‘H’ key (hide units) is great for finding airfields for your Aircraft to refuel and re-base and also for spotting bridges, destroyed or otherwise hiding under units.
• Hovering the mouse over a ranged unit shows a halo of its attack range.
• Hovering over a HQ unit shows its influence range.
• Hold left Ctrl to see the detailed damage calculation, including any buffs & debuffs from terrain and morale and also the HQ unit’s buff if in range.
• Do a final cycle through your units with the [] keys when you’re done with your turn and before hitting ‘next turn’. I always miss something useful or important otherwise and it will only take a few seconds if all of your units have been given orders..
• In campaigns, don’t forget to check your Policies often, you can forget and accumulate a lot of HQ points that can be put to good use.
• If you’re short of ground attack aircraft and can’t buy more, fighters are OK against Artillery and Heavy Infantry units and can also be upgraded with bombs, missiles and fuel tanks.
• Move your Air Recon in two stages, this way, should you spot something interesting on the edge of view, you an head towards it, or away from it if it’s a threat.
• If you spot an enemy airfield with your Air Recon, try to stay 1 or 2 hexes away from it as this is where the AI tends to place its AA units.
• If you can, spend your spare gold at the end of a turn, or as late as possible. Don’t run out of a repair and supply budget by buying new units too early in the turn.
• The gold earned per turn by buildings is shown in the top left of the screen when you hover over the building with the mouse. It helps you plan which enemy structures to attack to boost income as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• It takes 3 turns to repair a damaged structure tile. The building won’t repair or resupply your unit or generate gold until fully repaired. the ’tile damage modifier’ number in the tile info panel provides an indication of how much more damage there is left to repair.
• Check the Settings before playing, there is an huge range of options for you to turn on and off and many are critical to enjoying a scenario fully; such as do you wan’t to be able to Research units or use historical timelines for new model availability, and do you want your aircraft to crash when they run out of fuel before reaching a friendly airfield.
• To record a Score you need to have the right settings selected. The game you are about to play shows a trophy with a red X through it if your selected options prevent a score* being recorded.
• Scores are simply the number of turns taken by each player to win the map. The game options needed to qualify for a score provides for a ‘level playing field’ so the number of turns is as good an indicator of performance as any.
• Be careful when bombing enemy units on bridges, you will often destroy the bridge as well.
• Fighters attacking dug in infantry won’t reduce entrenchment.
• Engineers can not deploy depots in enemy territory (behind enemy lines)