Contents.Gameplay Hearts of Iron IV is a that primarily revolves around. The player may play as any nation in the world in the 1936 or 1939 start dates in or, although the game is not designed to go beyond 1948. A nation's military is divided between,. For the ground forces, the player may train, customize, and command consisting of various types of, and other units. These divisions require equipment and to properly fight.
The navy and air force also require men and equipment, including the actual and that are used in combat. Equipment is produced by military factories, while ships are built. These military factories and dockyards are, in turn, constructed by civilian factories, which also construct a variety of other buildings, produce for the civilian population, and oversee with other nations. Most nations are initially forced to devote a significant number of their civilian factories to producing consumer goods, but as the nation becomes increasingly, more factories will be freed up for other purposes. Mobilization is represented as a 'policy' that the player may adjust with the proper amount of, an abstract 'resource' that is also used to appoint new and change other facets of the nation's government. In addition to mobilization, there are other policies, including the nation's stance on and commerce.Land in Hearts of Iron IV is divided into tiny regions known as provinces, which are grouped together to form states.
Each state has a certain amount of building slots, factory slots, and 10 infrastructure slots. The major seas and oceans (for warships) and the sky (for warplanes) are similarly divided into different regions.
These provinces each have a type of assigned to them that determines how well different types of units will perform in combat there. Divisions are placed in provinces and can attack enemy units in adjacent provinces. How well divisions perform in combat depends on various factors, such as the quality of their equipment, the weather, the type of terrain, the skill and traits of the commanding the divisions, and the of both sides.
Technologies can be researched to improve equipment and learn new, among other things, which often means that a more technologically advanced nation will have an edge in combat. If a division (or a group of divisions) successfully overwhelms an enemy province, they may it. Some provinces may have victory points, and if you secure enough enemy victory points, the enemy nation will capitulate. Occupying key provinces within a allows the occupying power to access the enemy's factories and in that state.
To occupation within a state can hamper the occupying power's control over it. Late in the game, nations may develop if they have the proper technology, which can be used to devastate enemy provinces and states.Hearts of Iron IV also attempts to recreate the complex relationships of the day. Nations may undertake a variety of diplomatic actions; they may sign, the independence of other nations, and offer or request, amongst other things. Another key feature of diplomacy is the ability to create a or invite other nations to an existing one. Factions represent the main alliances of the era, like the and (for gameplay purposes, real-world factions like the Axis and Allies are split into numerous smaller factions, like the, the, and the ).
Faction members may assist each other in wars, making faction members very valuable assets. A number of more clandestine diplomatic actions are also available.
For example, the player may against other nations, spread their abroad, or stage a. Countries in the game may be,. Each of the four ideologies have advantages and disadvantages; for example, fascist nations can go to war with other countries easily, but other nations are not as willing to trade with them as they are with democratic countries. If a different ideology becomes too popular in a country, a may be held that will peacefully convert the nation to the more popular ideology.
Otherwise, ideologies may come to power violently through coups, or.While Hearts of Iron 4 does feature some events, the game features a 'national focus' system that makes fixed events less necessary than in previous installments in the series. Each country in the game has a 'focus tree' with various 'national focuses' that grant certain effects or trigger events. For example, in order for the to occur, must first complete the focus that is related to it.
Other focuses can grant special bonuses, like faster research times for certain technologies or extra factories. While some bonuses (like extra factories) are very tangible, others (like improvements to morale) are more abstract. These abstract bonuses are represented by 'national spirits' that can be temporary or permanent. Not all national spirits are granted by focuses, and not all spirits are entirely beneficial in nature.
Focuses are completed over time; only one focus may be worked on at once, and working on one consumes some political power. Initially, only a handful of key nations, like Germany, the, and the, had unique focus trees; all other nations shared a generic one. Subsequent updates and have added focus trees to other nations as well.Hearts of Iron IV also introduces the concept of ',' an abstract representation of how close the world is to war on a scale from 0 to 100. Aggressive actions by any nation can increase world tension, while peaceful actions can decrease it. Depending on the circumstances of a nation, like their ideology, a certain level of world tension may be necessary to perform certain actions, like justifying war against another country. Expansions and mods Expansions NameRelease dateDescriptionTogether for Victory15 December 2016Together for Victory is the first expansion pack for Hearts of Iron IV.
It adds focus trees to multiple nations within the:, and the. It also expands the relationships between and their masters, with a special autonomy system that determines a subject nation's degree of independence. Features like an expanded system and the sharing of technology are also added.Death or Dishonor14 June 2017Death or Dishonor is the second expansion pack for Hearts of Iron IV. It adds focus trees to several minor powers in and:,.
It also adds the ability to license military equipment.Waking the Tiger8 March 2018Waking the Tiger is the third expansion pack for Hearts of Iron IV. It mostly focuses on the, with new focus trees for and and China and a shared focus tree for the of,. The expansion also adds more opportunities for, with the focus trees of and being reworked and a number of formable nations being added. Special projects and policies can be enacted with decisions, and several changes to the managing of generals are present in the expansion.Man the Guns28 February 2019Man the Guns is the fourth expansion pack for Hearts of Iron IV.
It mostly focuses on improving the naval combat of the game, although numerous other changes and new features are also present in the expansion. For example, the expansion adds focus trees for the and, more alternate history paths for the and the, as a resource, and.Mods Hearts of Iron IV was developed to be more open-ended than previous games in the series. Partially as a result of this, the game can be more readily than its predecessors.
A variety of mods for the game, most of which can be found on the, have been developed, including a number of mods that dramatically change the game. Some mods have been successful enough to attract attention from the media, such as Kaiserreich, a mod set in a world where the won, Red World, a mod set in a world where the won the, Millennium Dawn, a mod set in the modern day, and The Great War, a mod set in the First World War. Some mods have also attracted controversy for alleged racism and bigotry, such as Deus Vult, a mod that adds the to the game and allows them to commit various atrocities. Development Hearts of Iron IV was announced in 2014 and was originally slated for a late 2015 release. At, creative director confirmed that the game would be pushed back from its original release window, with the new release date being scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.
This was an attempt to resolve several issues encountered with the game. In March 2016, it was announced that the game would be released on June 6, 2016, which is the 72nd anniversary of the. Reception ReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScore83Review scoresPublicationScore9/108/1088/100Currently, the base game has a score of 83 from review aggregator, translating to 'generally favorable reviews'.gave the game a positive review, writing that ' Hearts of Iron IV embodies the hard truths about all-consuming war and the international politics that guide it.' It argued that the tutorial was the only weak point, and that 'for the dedicated, Hearts of Iron IV could end up being the best grand strategy game in some time.' It was also reviewed in, with the reviewer writing it was 'overwhelming in both its depth and, more importantly, its complexity,' and arguing that some players unfamiliar with the franchise might find the game interface too complex to easily navigate.wrote a positive review, describing it as 'an incredibly complex World War II simulation that will require potentially hundreds of hours to master, both in-game and pouring over wiki articles that read like an economics textbook,' but writing that 'the payoff is brilliant for those willing to put in the time to learn.'
The review praised the layout, writing 'thanks to an unusually striking look and clean, easily navigable interface, the biggest challenges Hearts of Iron 4 presents us with are the good kind: strategic planning, division composition, and fine-tuning economic and political policies.' IGN went on to conclude that Hearts of Iron IV 'is a strong contender for the title of ultimate armchair-general game. The biggest problems I can point to are almost all performance-related, putting a slow, frustrating finale on what is otherwise an ingeniously detailed strategic stimulation of just about every aspect of 20th-century global warfare.'
![]()
A review in described it as a 'unique, beautiful, thrilling wargame. While I found a number of flaws when I stood close to the tapestry, it's important to remember that Hearts of Iron 4 exists to encompass the whole sweep of the war.' See also.
^ Dingman, Hayden (Mar 15, 2016). Retrieved September 9, 2016. Apolon (June 29, 2016). Retrieved January 8, 2019. JAFalcon (March 18, 2016). Retrieved February 20, 2019. Hannley, Sean (June 7, 2016).
Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved February 20, 2019. Dumitrescu, Andrei (October 4, 2015). Retrieved February 20, 2019. Priest, Simon (May 8, 2015). Retrieved February 20, 2019. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
Brown, Fraser (December 16, 2016). Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved February 27, 2019. Retrieved 2018-05-21. Cobb, James (June 14, 2017). Retrieved February 27, 2019. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
Robinson, Joe (March 19, 2018). Retrieved February 27, 2019.
Retrieved 2018-05-21. Donnelly, Joe (May 19, 2018). Retrieved February 27, 2019.
Haas, Pete (23 January 2014). Cinema Blend. Retrieved 29 April 2019. Moore, Zach (August 9, 2018). Retrieved February 27, 2019. Booker, Logan (November 13, 2016). Retrieved February 27, 2019.
Winkie, Luke (June 6, 2018). Retrieved February 27, 2019.
Frank, Allegra (March 15, 2016). Retrieved February 12, 2019. Hafer, Todd (13 June 2015). The walking dead season 8 free torrent download. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
^. Retrieved September 9, 2016. ^ Hafer, TJ (June 6, 2016). Retrieved September 9, 2016. Starkey, Daniel (2016-06-08).
Retrieved 2019-02-24. ^ Zacny, Rob (June 9, 2016).
Retrieved September 9, 2016. Starkey, Daniel (June 8, 2016). Retrieved September 9, 2016. Plunkett, Luke (June 6, 2016). Retrieved September 9, 2016.External links.
H earts of Iron 4 can be unapologetic ally brutal to new wargamers with the sheer amount of systems involved, and especially after several DLCs and patches. Whether it’s figuring out how to structure your forces or what plan of action to take as an Allied state facing imminent doom in 1936, it can be quite a challenge.Luckily for you, that's where we come in!
Now you have a handy guide to aid you in navigating the choppy waters of the second war to end all wars. Make sure you're up to speed with all the latest changes as of the Man the Guns DLC. PART ONE: THE DIVISION DESIGNER, YOUR NEW BEST FRIENDBefore we talk about the grand strategies that will fuel your world dominating/liberating campaign, it’s important to talk about the cogs in your war-machine. The level of control you have over the makeup of individual divisions and ships can be daunting, but as long as you follow the rules laid out to you, you will be conquering away in no time.
The ArmyArguably the most important part of an HOI4 military, most of the game’s combat mechanics revolve around divisions slugging it out with their evil counterparts on the opposing side. The most distinguishing feature between any two divisions is their makeup in the Division Designer.
Here, you can add and subtract different types of battalions from a division, altering its combat stats and overall performance.One of the most important considerations to take into account when designing a division is combat width. Each division will take up an amount of space on the battlefield, and having more divisions on a side in a fight will lead to reduced effectiveness, or will block reinforcements from joining the fight altogether. Most battlefields will have “combat width” of 80, meaning that optimal division sizes should be either 20 or 40, if you’re looking to min-max as much as possible ( Note: if a province is attacked from multiple directions simultaneously, each new province will add 40 to the total allowed combat width, which means more units will be able to fight at once). Generally, frontline battalions will have a width of 2, the most common exceptions being dedicated anti-air and anti-tank battalions. These both cost 1 width as they’re not considered 'frontline' fighters. Artillery is the other main outlier, costing a heavy 3 width.
If you’re approaching your comfortable limit, consider adding a support artillery company rather than an artillery battalion. These 'support' companies don’t bring as much firepower as their larger counterparts, but they add nothing to the total combat width of a division.On the subject of support companies, two that are almost necessary to include are the engineer company and the recon company. The engineer company increases the amount a division can entrench itself, meaning that given enough time, a single division with an engineering team can become a major problem for an attacking force. Through research, the engineering team will also increase the general attack and defense of the division, particularly in rough terrain, i.e. Urban environments, across rivers, forts, etc. The recon company provides simpler benefits: speed and reconnaissance. A division with a recon team will move 10% faster across every terrain type, meaning they can reach the fight faster.
This is incredibly important for any division that can expect to fight, but particularly so for divisions that use vehicles. When your division does get into a fight, reconnaissance determines which tactic a side will pick in battle. The higher the reconnaissance value one side has in the fight, the higher the chance their general will pick a favorable or countering pick to the opposing force’s choice.There are other considerations to take into account when forming a division, such as what your enemies’ divisions look like, and where you will be fighting them. For example, a division meant to fight tanks in European plains is going to suffer heavily if fighting infantry in African jungles. As such, here are some general tips to keep in mind when building divisions:.
The more battalions a division has, the more supplies it will need, so “heavier” divisions will frequently suffer attrition in bad terrain. Try using smaller divisions, or adding logistics companies to reduce the negative effects of the environment.
All divisions that use trucks, half-tracks, or tanks should invest in a maintenance company. These companies will increase the reliability of the vehicles, meaning less are lost to attrition, and they will also capture a percentage of enemy equipment for you to use.
Anti-air companies/ battalions increase your air superiority in a province, but they will only target close air support aircraft, not aircraft with strategic bombing missions (presumably, they fly too high for the anti-air guns to shoot them down). Standard “leg infantry” divisions are the most reliable and cost effective divisions you could hope for. You can build an infantry division to 20 width, add the necessary support companies, and then copy the template so you can alter it to fit your specific needs. Most of your divisions should be infantry divisions. Motorized divisions are faster than mechanized divisions until the third halftrack becomes available, keep this in mind when looking for speed. A division only travels as fast as its slowest part, so it may be wise to pair up a single super heavy tank battalion with an infantry division, as they move at the same speed. A single anti-tank company with the most up-to-date guns can allow most divisions to pierce enemy armor.
Infantry has naturally higher organization than tank battalions and support gun battalions. As such, for campaigns that see units being in repeated battles, divisions with a higher ratio of infantry will be able to stay in the front lines longer.For more information on divisions, I recommend checking out the Hearts of Iron 4 wiki page on the Division Designer & land combat stats.Editor's Note: Grand (Strategy) Master T.J. Hafer that you can check out, although it's a tad outdated at the moment - part of the reason we decided to launch a new, more comprehensive tips guide for the game.
The NavyThe naval mechanics just had, so don’t feel alone if you’re confused about what’s new. Ships used to have a similar improvement structure to armored land vehicles and aircraft (which we’ll cover after this section) where a specific ship would be researched, then could be improved by spending experience points. Now hull types rather than whole ships can be researched, as well as the individual modules for ships. Every ship has an amount of slots that can be filled by these modules, but the catch is that ships will take longer to be built with advanced modules and higher amounts of modules overall.
There are also restrictions on what ship types can equip certain modules. It doesn’t make much sense to put an aircraft hangar on a submarine, even though you really want to!There are 5 main types of ship hulls: destroyer, cruiser, heavy, carrier, and submarine. There is a 6 th hull type, the super heavy hull, but that only exists as an alteration of the 1936 heavy ship. These ships can vary widely in their roles based on what modules are placed on them, so we’ll go into a breakdown of the general capabilities of specific hull types.Destroyers are light and fast ships that are some of the quickest to produce.
They can be outfitted with some modest main guns, but the 2 main uses of destroyers are as torpedo boats and submarine hunters. Due to their speed, a large amount of destroyers can swarm enemy heavy ships and deal heavy damage with torpedoes.
These fleets are relatively easy to build due to the short build time of destroyers, and everything but torpedoes can be stripped off the ship to make the build time even quicker, though this will render them ineffective in any other situation. Destroyers can also be outfitted with sonar and depth charges, which is the one way surface vessels can attack submarines. Curiously, due to naval battle AI, submarines will flee almost any battle with depth charge-equipped destroyers, being that the destroyers can actually hurt them. This means that as of the current patch (1.6.2), destroyers may actually function better as convoy raiders than submarines, because destroyers will not automatically flee the second a small enemy force appears. This will hopefully not be true forever, but keep this in mind for the near future.Cruisers are the most versatile of the hull types, with the ability to fill almost any role needed.
Cruisers can be outfitted with heavy guns and armor, classifying them as heavy cruisers that can perform reasonably well as capital ships. Alternatively, they can have lighter guns mounted with a stronger engine, and they can pursue marauding destroyer packs, or they can have several anti-air batteries bolted to the deck as a means of creating a floating “no-fly zone.” But even though cruisers can cover many different bases, they don’t excel as much as the ship types that are meant to perform in those roles. Cruisers take longer to build than destroyers and aren’t quite as fast, and the heaviest cruiser will most likely lose a prolonged engagement with an enemy battleship. Even so, they can be a multi-tool for any situation, and can be refitted to change their role in the seas.Heavy ships are the undisputed kings of the sea in the first several years of the game. They have access to the thickest armor and the largest guns out of all ship types, but they are generally slower than other ships, and take longer to build as well. The big guns on battleships are excellent at killing cruisers and other capital ships, but they are less accurate against destroyers.
Battleships can trade some of their extra module space for smaller guns specifically meant to target lesser ships, but this lessens the effectiveness of the battleship in its primary role, which is to fight the enemy’s capital ships. Battleships also take a very long time to build compared to smaller ships, meaning that ships you begin construction on will likely be equipped with subpar tech by the time they launch. However, an old battleship is still a battleship, and can be very useful when working with a capable fleet.Carriers are very straightforward as far as ships go: their sole purpose is to launch aircraft that will assist in combat. Aircraft are very effective against enemy fleets in large numbers, but a fleet with solid anti-air cover can severely inhibit a carrier’s ability to do its job. Outside of fighting specific anti-carrier fleets, carriers are arguably the strongest ship type in the game for the ability to project air power not only in battle, but in the sea region the carrier is operating in, or even the neighboring land province.
Much like battleships, carriers do take a long time to build, but this battleships and some cruisers can make up for this time by performing carrier conversions that slap a flight deck onto these ships after removing the guns. They do not have the same aircraft capacity full carriers do, but they can be sufficient as support carriers.
Carriers are vitally important to fleets in HOI4: if you don’t want to build any of your own, you should still plan to specifically target and kill enemy carriers.Speaking of killing enemy carriers, Submarines excel at hunting down enemy capital ships and shipping. They are also very, very cheap compared to other ships, so a fleet of submarines can quickly be assembled to threaten unprotected enemy ships. However, due to the strange AI behavior mentioned in the destroyer section, submarines are currently cowards, and will flee from battle the second a destroyer appears. As such, the usefulness of submarines is limited, but a large amount of submarines spread out on shipping lanes will still have an impact on enemy resources and troops.General tips on building up a navy:.
Submarines, destroyers, light cruisers, and eventually bombers can lay mines in naval regions if they have minelaying modules. It may be beneficial to build cheap ships that just have minelaying / minesweeping capabilities so you can quickly build up defenses or clear them out as the need arises. Don’t be afraid to launch a ship then immediately send it to be refit with newer technology, the benefit of the newer tech can be worth the wait. Air superiority will impact the effectiveness of naval missions, so provide air cover for your fleets when possible. Build your fleet to counter the enemy fleet.
If the enemy is focusing on building mainly capital ships, invest in torpedo technology. If the enemy likes swarms of smaller ships, build ships with many light guns that are more effective against those ships. Research engines early, being faster than the enemy fleet will give your ships a huge advantage. The bigger the ship, the more fuel it consumes.
Ships with more advanced engines will use more fuel, so keep that in mind when your fuel is running dry.The Air ForceThe air power part of the combat trifecta is undoubtedly the most abstract, and has less moving parts than either of the other two dimensions. However, it is airpower that can be the determining factor in land or sea battles, so it is important to detail. Aircraft are split into 2 main trees, which I’ll refer to as the “light” and “heavy” trees.The “light” tree has close air supports (CAS), fighters, and naval bombers.
These aircraft are generally more agile and faster than the aircraft in the other tree, but have less heavy armaments and have shorter ranges than the heavy aircraft. These aircraft also have carrier variants that are generally slightly slower than their land-based counterparts, along with further reduced range.
Light aircraft are meant to be deployed at the tactical level, or attached to an army so they follow them along the front as support.The “heavy” aircraft consist of the heavy fighter, the tactical bomber, and the strategic bomber. These aircrafts have longer range and stronger armaments than the “light” aircraft, but consume more manpower, and are not as good at targeting specific units. “Heavy” aircraft, due to their range and their intended targets are generally better at the strategic level.All aircraft can have variants that be upgraded in 4 categories: reliability, range, attack, and engine. Generally when creating a variant of an aircraft, it is beneficial to upgrade the category that the aircraft already is dominant in, in order to increase their strengths. For example, a fighter’s strength comes from its high agility, which both helps them to attempt attacks on enemy aircraft and avoid attacks from the enemy. Upgrading the agility of fighters would give them even more of an advantage over the enemy. However, the other categories do not need to be neglected for the “preferred” category, but every point sunk into an upgrade makes the next one more costly in experience points, so spend carefully!General air composition tips:.
Heavy fighters perform better in larger provinces due to their increased range, while regular fighters perform better in smaller regions. Upgrading reliability on aircraft is always a smart move as this will decrease the amount of aircraft lost to accidents.
The strategic bomber is relatively expensive compared to the tactical bomber. It may be wise to build more of the less effective tactical bombers for strategic bombing in order to have enough aircraft bombing the enemy’s factories.
Heavy fighters are more expensive than regular fighters, but heavy fighters count more towards air supremacy for your side. Consider investing in a more agile heavy fighter to make more use of this effect. If you have multiple air bases in an air region, investing in longer-ranged aircraft is less important so you can rebase the aircraft to where you need them.PART TWO: THE SECOND WAR TO END ALL WARS 1. ALLIES (+ UNITED STATES)The Allies have two options at the beginning of the game.
Stall as they did historically, waiting until the Germans swallow up too many other states or declare a direct war on an Allied state, or take the riskier option and seize the initiative, attacking the Germans before they can build up the fearsome army that rolled across Europe.The first option is the “safer” one in the long run, as the main Allied states, the United Kingdom and France, have strong economies and can build up defenses, fuel refineries, and radar stations before the Germans swing around to confront them. Perhaps the Allies may even get lucky and have the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact fall apart and see a war between the Axis and ComIntern, allowing even more time to prepare? In any case, the United States cannot be counted out, and the Allies should do everything in their power to encourage the United States to join the war as quickly as possible. The US has such vast amounts of manpower and natural resources that they can easily turn the tide of the war.However, the Germans are decidedly weaker early on, and with a combined effort from the UK and France, may prove to be an easy target. It is important to note that the UK does not have a huge military in 1936, and will likely play a support role to France’s army.
Italy should also not be counted out, as they have a decently sized and experienced army, fresh out of the conflict in Ethiopia. Those forces can prove to be a major distraction if left alone to run rampant around Africa, where both France and the UK have many important colonies. THE UNITED KINGDOMThe UK needs to decide whether to abandon the continent and focus on the navy to keep Germans at bay, or to put more resources into the army and potentially risk a weaker navy, opening the isles to attack.
There’s not much getting around this quandary, because the United Kingdom has a relatively sizable amount of factories in 1936, but they have not sufficiently re-militarized since World War 1 to call them truly powerful. If the British go for a continental intervention, they can bottle the German navy up in the Baltic Sea if they manage to take the German land adjacent to the North Sea. This can negate the danger the German navy poses to the isles, and will prevent a sudden invasion.However, this gamble may not work against the Germans, who can be formidable even at their weakest.
It may be beneficial to focus on growing the home industry rather than focusing directly on the military in order to give a better long-term advantage. If a more defensive strategy is planned, the UK should take this time to work on building sea forts, AA guns, and radar stations.
The Launcher for Hoi4. Items 1 through 7 are as follows: 1) game version and checksum 2) video display button 3) clear user directory button 4) game play button 5) create account button 6) downloadable content (DLC) tab 7) mods tab. Note that the DLC tab is currently open. 1) Game version - Observe that the graphic shows game version 1.5.4 and checksum 1503. Saved games are set to the game version and that are currently playing. If the saved game version and checksum do not match the game version and checksum, then the saved game will not work. Be aware that the game is normally on automatic updates and once Man the Guns (version 1.6) is released, then version 1.5.4 saved games will not work unless the game is rolled back to the matching version.
This can be found on the Paradox Forums. Note that this procedure requires a game code for each owned game branch and that a Paradox Interactive account is needed to view those codes for input into Steam. 2) Video display button - Clicking the gear icon opens the video display menu. This menu has 3 dropdown menus; Display Mode, Resolution, and Refresh Rate.
The Display Mode allows three choices: Fullscreen, Windowed, and Borderless. Fullscreen is recommended because Windowed and Borderless modes on some systems have been known to cause launch issues such as blackscreens and failure to launch the game (reference ). The Resolution allows a multitude of choices such as 1600x1024, 1680x1050, etc. Matching the game's resolution to the monitor's native resolution usually gives the optimum viewing experience. The Refresh Rate should also be set to match the monitor, if possible. The 60 Hz selection is recommended because it is quite common and the 50 Hz selection has been known to cause launch issues such as blackscreens and failure to launch the game. This graphic has a vertical arrow pointing to the video display button represented by the gear icon.
Clicking the 'gear icon' will open the video display menu (see horizontal arrow) revealing 3 dropdown menus; one menu each for Display Mode, Resolution, and Refresh Rate. Clicking on each small, inverted, green triangle will open a menu for choosing your video preference. The graphic shows that Fullscreen, 1920x1080, and 60 Hz have been selected.
3) Clear user directory button - Clicking on this button will clear your HOI4 user directory. Only click on this button if you are experiencing game crashes. Reference the Tooltip in the graphic. A graphic with arrows pointing to the 'Clear user directory' button and its associated Tooltip.
4) Game Play button - Click the game Play button after choosing the video settings, DLC, and mods. 5) Create Account button - Click this button to create a Paradox Interactive account. It is recommended that you create an account as it will give you access to technical support in the event that the game becomes problematic.
A Paradox Interactive account is also needed to log into the Paradox Plaza website to access the codes for previous branches of each game that is owned. This is due to the enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Other benefits include access to bug reports, game suggestions, etc. 6) DLC tab - Clicking on the DLC tab will reveal all of the downloadable content purchased for this game. Clicking an item will place a green check mark next to the item indicating that it has been selected for inclusion in the game.
No check mark indicates that the item was not selected for the game. The graphic shows that all purchased items (Anniversary Pack, Historical German Portraits, Poland: United and Ready, Rocket Launcher Unit Pack) have been selected. Note also that such DLC as Together For Victory, Death or Dishonor, and Waking the Tiger are not shown in the graphic as this user did not purchase those items. 7) Mods tab - Clicking on the Mods tab will show a pulldown menu capable of revealing all of the mods that have been downloaded for the game.
Clicking an item will place a green check mark next to the item indicating that it has been selected for inclusion in the game. No check mark indicates that the item was not selected for the game.
The graphic shows that the mods 'Coloured Buttons' and 'More Division Icons' have been selected. Mods can be downloaded from the Steam Workshop. Be aware that some mods will deactivate the ability to get achievements during gameplay and that some mods are not updated for the latest version of the game which can lead to a system crash. Reading the author's information about their mod will usually indicate if the mod is compatible with achievements and what version of HOI4 that their mod has been updated to. A graphic with an arrow pointing to the 'Mods' tab.
The 'Coloured Buttons' and 'More Division Icons' mods have been selected.Troubleshooting the game Try the solutions listed below if the game fails to launch, freezes, crashes to desktop (CTD), or 'blackscreens'. The most common causes and solutions are listed first.
Contact technical support or visit the forums for additional help. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.5.In the lower right corner of the map before starting the game are the game settings.
Here the player can toggle and on or off and use the difficulty settings to make the game harder or easier for the player and also boost the relative power of one or more of the more important nations (this makes them stronger, but not smarter). There is also an icon for showing if steam can be earned in the game or not, they require ironman mode and regular or higher difficulty. When finished press the play button in the lower right hand corner to start the game.General difficulty settings The general Difficulty settings affect only the player. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3.Main article:The of Hearts of Iron IV will immediately appear familiar to veterans of Paradox strategy games.
The left hand of the screen is used to manage large national issues, alert tabs will appear at the top of the screen to warn players of things that need attention, and the right hand side of the screen will be devoted to information about the troops. The very top border of the screen will include important summary information about the state of the game and the world.Across the top left to center of the main play screen is a row of numbers running from left to right. National focus tree of Italy. (Click to enlarge.)The player will be prompted to choose a for the country if none is active.
It normally takes 70 days to complete a national focus, and it costs one political power point per day. National focuses form a tree, like the technology tree, but rather than unlocking technology they are about the country's choice of direction. One may choose to, for the moment, focus on industrial or technological growth, or orient the country's diplomacy towards certain other countries, forming research pacts, starting factions, gaining claims, or threatening war. Some National Focus choices are mutually exclusive; for example, the cannot be friends with both and.This menu also allows political power to be spent in order to change government laws or hire political, military and industrial advisers.
Most changes will cost a minimum of 150 political power, and very powerful advisers may cost up to 250, with extremely powerful laws and advisers costing up to 300 political power and sometimes even more than that.Laws and government. Conscription law: affects how much manpower a country has available.
Trade law: affects research speed, factory and construction speed and how many resources are available to be traded. Economy law: affects how many factories are dedicated to consumer goods, manpower availability, and military production. Political Advisor screen.There is space for three political advisers who can be hired to give bonuses.Research and production A tank designer, ship designer, aircraft designer and material designer can be added to earn bonuses to either production of the relevant weapon system, or affecting its combat abilities.An industrial concern and a theorist can also be added to improve certain types of research.Military staff A Chief of Army, Chief of Navy and Chief of Air Force can be added to improve research or combat skills in their respective services. Three other members of the high command may be hired.Decisions The gray button at the top of the screen marked with a gavel opens the Events and Decisions menu. Decisions allow a nation to do special projects such as switching ideology, conducting border wars, banning political parties, censoring the press, etc. These decisions typically cost anywhere from 25 to 200 political power, except for a few decisions which require no political power at all.
Decisions are a middle ground between focus trees and events (allows additional modding and mechanics).Research Main article. Research screen.The gray button at the top of the screen marked with a beaker opens the menu.
There are three or four slots available to research particular technologies, but by pursuing specific national focus ideas the nation may unlock additional research slots, usually up to five.There are eleven categories of research. Each nation starts with a historically appropriate level of technology and theory, depending on the scenario.All the research trees (except for ) are marked along a historical timeline. Researching a technology or unit before their historic year takes longer than it would if researched on or after the historic date. This penalty may be reduced by pursuing certain national focus ideas.
Land doctrine screen.: Most of the great powers will start with an initial land doctrine. This may be changed, but all land doctrine paths are mutually exclusive. Each land doctrine chosen assigns its own major combat bonuses.: researching more advanced warships, submarines, convoy/landing craft and -with the Man The Guns DLC- naval modules used to upgrade ships.: Some of the great powers will start with an initial naval doctrine.
This may be changed, but all naval doctrine paths are mutually exclusive. The chosen naval doctrine will assign major bonuses.: researching different types of fighters, attack planes and bombers as well as carrier borne variants.: Some of the great powers will start with an initial air doctrine.
This may be changed, but all air doctrine paths are mutually exclusive. The air doctrine chosen will assign major combat bonuses.: researching electrical engineering for radars (for detection) and computers (for research and encryption bonuses), as well as researching nuclear and rocket technology: researching means to improve the efficiency, productivity and resource extraction capabilities of the player's country.Diplomacy Main article:The gray button with a hand ready to be shaken opens the menu. Here is a list of nations and a number of filter buttons to narrow down the list.When the player clicks on a nation to interact with it, this will display a portrait of its leader and a little bit of information about what the nation is up to. In the upper right corner of the menu, one will see a couple of tiny flags with arrows indicating the relationship between the two nations.There are a number of actions one can take in the diplomatic menu, provided the requirements are met.
Democracies are especially limited in their abilities to undertake aggressive diplomatic actions unless the world tension meter has climbed to a high enough level.Hover the cursor over each option for a description of the diplomatic action and what conditions must be met.Trade Main article. Trade screen.The gray button with box and curved exchange arrows opens the menu. The player will see a number of tabs and columns listing the major resources available, what is required and possible trading partners.There are six major in the game: oil, aluminum, rubber, tungsten, steel, and chromium. These are used to help in the construction of tanks, battleships, planes and so forth.
Each new production line of a major weapon system will require a certain amount of resources. Though one can build these units without the necessary resources, production will be much slower and less efficient.Resources are found in certain locations on the map and are not evenly distributed.
One will almost always have to trade for what one needs.To trade for a resource, click on the name of the country and move the slider to determine how much one is trading for. Resources are typically traded in units of 8.
Each trade, unless conducted over land, requires a minimum of 1 convoy vessel plus additional convoys depending on naval distance and total quantity of resources.Every 8 units of a resource one imports will also cost a civilian factory, with that productive power going to the nation that is being traded with. Therefore, exports will make a country's industry stronger as civilian factory 'power' is pulled from other nations, but a lot of imports will make a country weaker due to the loss of civilian factory 'power'. However, it may be necessary to import resources to keep the war machine running at optimal efficiency. Tip: trading with puppets gains considerably more than 8 resources per civilian factory traded.Construction Main article:The gray button with the excavator opens the menu.
This is where one will assign tasks to civilian factories - building infrastructure, new factories, defenses, and so on.make all the improvements to a State. The number of factories available for construction will depend on the size of the nation, how many factories are being dedicated to providing consumer goods for the country's population (Economy Law), and how many factories have been “traded” for strategic resources.
The amount of civilian factories can be increased by building more, but be careful since each State can only support a certain number of productive structures. A maximum of fifteen factories will be devoted to a construction project, and any left over will work on the next item in the queue.There are three categories of structure that can be built with civilian factories.State structures These constructions improve the state without using up one of the shared building slots. Instead, each type of improvement here has its own level and maximum.: Each state has an infrastructure rating that determines how easy it is to supply units in the state, how quickly military units can move through the state, how quickly shared buildings can be constructed, and increases resource output.: The larger the air base, the more planes it can effectively field. Air bases house military aircraft.: Helps defend a state from enemy aircraft attempting to strategic bomb installations such as refineries, factories, infrastructure, etc.: Helps the air force detect and engage enemy air wings, increases detection of nearby enemy fleets at sea, and gains intel on enemy troops in nearby states.Shared structures The number of shared structures that can be built is limited by the number of slots available in that State. The number of slots can be increased by researching Industry technologies.
Some National Focuses also add extra slots in specific states.: Used to produce weapons, equipment, planes, and vehicles.: Used to produce and improve a nation's military/industrial capacity.: Produce synthetic oil and rubber, especially useful to nations that lack either.: Used to produce ships and convoys. Can only be built in coastal states.: Locations from which to produce rockets and to launch rocket attacks on nearby nations.: Produces nuclear weapons.Province buildings Province buildings are built on the smallest territory size in HoI4, the province.: Stations and repairs, and can send and receive supplies and resources via convoys. Each naval base level increases supply capacity and supply throughput.: Inflicts an attack penalty of -15% for each fort level on the attacker in combat. Attacking from multiple directions will reduce forts effect.: Inflicts an attack penalty of -15% for each fort level on the attacker in naval invasion combat.Production The gray button with the wrench opens the menu.
This is where and are assigned to build, army vehicles, and.The more factories one dedicates to building a specific item, the more will be produced. Infantry, armor and artillery units made will then be assigned to the appropriate military divisions, either for new units being constructed or reinforcement and upgrades for units in the field. Excess equipment is left in the national stockpile. Airplanes produced will be deposited into a reserve pool. Naval units will be automatically placed in the highest level naval base, though one can assign a port or fleet if that would be preferable (recommended for the so they don't end up with all new ships stuck in the Black Sea).Factory output is dependent on the availability of strategic resources for higher end units, and on the efficiency cap of a country's industry. New production lines will take time to be perfectly efficient, and if one adds factories to a production line, some of that efficiency will be lost. The factory productivity and efficiency can be improved in the Industrial research tree.Recruit and deploy Main article:The gray button with the tank opens the menu to recruit and deploy units.
This is where it is decided what types of are to be trained. These divisions will be filled by the equipment and vehicles built in the production menu. What is required to complete a new unit is shown by hovering over the green progress bars. The country starts with a few default divisions that can be built. Can be spent to design a new or edit ones that already exist.The game starts with reinforcement and upgrades given equal weight with the creation of new units. If it is preferable focus the energy of new tanks or artillery on fresh units, instead of trickling equipment to the field, reinforcement priorities can be set on this screen as well.Logistics Main article:The gray button with the paper and pen opens the menu. This menu gives an overall summary of stockpiled equipment, whatever shortages the country might have, as well as a rundown of how many strategic resources the country is missing from the production lines.Controlling the army.
This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3.Main article:The player can move their units by selecting them with the left mouse button and then clicking their destination with the right mouse button. If one draws a box around a group of units using left click and drag, all units inside the box can be commanded. One can move troops across the ocean to friendly territory, by sending the units to a province with a naval port and then shift-clicking on a destination port. For an overview of all divisions, including indications of their combat status, click on the Army View icon under the date or press hotkey 'o'. Right-click on a division's info bar to pan over to it or hold down shift and left click on multiple units to select them all.Troops are more effective when they are grouped into armies under a 's command and given plans to execute.Creating command groups/armies Main article:The player can create of units by selecting a group of them and then clicking on the silhouetted portrait or green plus sign that one will see at the bottom of the screen. Then, go to the selected unit profile in the upper left and click on the silhouetted portrait.
This will open up the list of generals to be assigned to armies.There are two types of military leaders – generals (who can effectively command a maximum of 24 units) and field marshals (who have no limit on the number of units they can effectively command). Commanders may also have attributes that give them bonuses in certain types of combat situations. If one promotes a general to field marshal, they lose their attributes (except 'old guard') as field marshals have different attributes.Experience and giving orders Countries will gain mostly through combat, but one can start a trickle of early experience by having soldiers 'exercise'. To do this, select the army group and, in the unit profile in the upper left of the screen, click the exercise button in the upper right of the menu. Be aware that this results in higher equipment attrition, which may not be desirable as a country with limited industrial capacity.One can spend experience to promote generals and allowing them to lead more troops, or to create and edit new division types in the unit menu.An army group can be commanded like any other group of units and simply giving a right-click move order to a destination. However, they will fight better if they are given ' – a general order that is coordinated along a front, either to advance or defend.When the player selects an army group, they will see a row of general orders appear at the bottom of their screen.
Each of these has rollover text that explains in detail how to use this instruction. This guide will focus on the most important ones.: Use this for amphibious attacks on enemy territory. (One can move into friendly territory this way, but it is more efficient to simply use port to port movement as described above.)When one selects naval invasion, one will be asked to left-click on an origin point.
This is where the army will gather for the assault. Right click on the enemy province one wants to invade. Note that one will need to have some naval intelligence of every sea lane they will be crossing, so one will have to have warships patrolling or hold naval superiority in those sea areas.All plans take time, and amphibious invasions take a lot of time to plan. Once the weeks (or months) of preparation are ready, the grey arrow above the army group will turn a faded green.
Press that arrow to activate the plan.: To make a for offensive land operations, one must first define one's defensive front – this is the point from which the army group will begin their operations. Select the defensive front button and, on the map, draw a line to indicate where an army group will start. (In many cases, this will be a national border or the current line dividing enemy armies). Then, click the offensive front button (a line with an arrow) and draw the front to where the armies should advance.The army group units will begin to organize themselves along their defensive front. When they are in place and one is ready to begin, press the green arrow and the units will begin to execute the plan.One can research and hire advisors that will reduce the time for a military plan to be prepared or add bonuses to units that are operating with a plan.Controlling the navy. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3.will be automatically grouped into fleets at ports as they are constructed.
If one does not like the way fleets are organized, one can drag-and-drop silhouettes of ships from one fleet to another.Assign to one's fleets by clicking on the silhouetted portrait and choosing from available naval commanders. Political Power points may be spent to recruit new admirals for the fleets.
Like generals, admirals may have skills that are assets in particular battle situations or while commanding certain types of vessels. Admirals do not have a maximum amount of ships to lead.If a fleet is selected, a row of different orders will appear above it. These range from simple patrol missions to convoy escort duty.
Choose a mission for the fleet (submarines, for example, are best used to interrupt convoys), and then right-click on up to three contiguous, i.e., sea zones that touch each other. This fleet will then carry out that mission over these areas. One can remove these orders by returning the fleet to port and assigning a new mission.So long as a fleet is operating in a sea zone, enough intelligence should be gathered about that zone to both route supply overseas through that region or to order an amphibious assault across that space, but if the enemy is active in the region, naval superiority is also required.Controlling the air force. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game.
The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3.Main article:Unlike other units, that are constructed are sent to a hangar. One can mobilize them by clicking on an, then creating a using the button to the upper right of the resultant menu (it has a plus sign). The larger the airfield, the more planes it can efficiently use.Like, air units operate over regions and are given specific missions relevant to the type of aircraft. Fighters can do air superiority or interception, strategic bombers can target industry or infrastructure, tactical bombers can do close support of land attacks, and so on.
To assign an air wing to a region and a mission, click on an air field. This will open the air information map mode.Left click on an air wing and then right click on the region where it should operate. One can decide what mission it will perform. Planes have limited range depending on their type (strategic bombers have a much greater range than interceptors) and design (dependent on technology researched or experience spent to edit their abilities).Supply.
This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3.Armies in the field will require supplies to remain in fighting shape.
An army out of can take no offensive actions at all, including simple movement, even if unopposed. Supply is determined on a territorial basis (i.e., potentially larger than a single State) where each territory is able to support a specific number of troops. However, the final value of this supply to an actual unit is modified by the infrastructure of the State the unit is stationed within. If a territory can support 10 units easily, but if the army is in a province with very low or damaged infrastructure, a supply bottleneck will develop, so not every unit in that army will get what it needs.Supplies coming over land are also provided by adjacent territories - which forms a supply line back to the capital or an alternate territory if the capital territory is not in one's control. This is why it is particularly important to maintain and defend contiguous States between home and the front lines.When land paths are unavailable supplies will be transported via sea.
Overseas supply is done through. Larger ports can funnel more supply across the ocean, though this will also require more convoy ships. For overseas convoys to be most effective, one will need to assign some of one's naval vessels to Escort duty in the regions that they will cross.The player can check the supply lines and capacities by clicking on the Supply map mode in the menu to the lower right of the main screen.Special weapons. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.5.If all three (Atomic Research, Nuclear Reactor, Nuclear Bombs ) have been unlocked and at least one nuclear reactor has been built, then you will slowly acquire. To deliver a nuclear bomb the player must use a strategic bomber and have at least 75% air superiority over the strategic air region of the target province. Select the province one wants to attack and press the nuclear strike icon in the lower left of the province information menu.
A nuclear bomb will destroy most of the infrastructure and industry of the target and will damage any units in that area.If one researches both and and also builds a rocket site, then may be launched at distant States to damage their infrastructure. The main advantage of guided missiles is that they cost zero production and zero resources and do not tie up any military factories.
Instead, guided missiles are automatically produced at each rocket launch site at the rate of one every 24 hours. Rocket sites have a maximum capacity of 100 guided missiles which means that the launch site will be totally filled at the end of 101 days assuming no missiles have been launched. Further research into and allows rocket sites to manufacture and launch and respectively. At present it is not possible to launch nuclear bombs using rockets.Capitulation and winning the war. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.5.Once a country has lost owned above a certain threshold that depends on its war support, it will capitulate.
All divisions they own in their or occupied territory will be disbanded and their territory will be instantly occupied by the aggressor, but they carry on as a government-in-exile and keep control of their colonies (non-core provinces) - for example, the Netherlands keeps control of the Dutch East Indies. Partisans in occupied territory will continue to be a problem as long as the country's fellow faction members carry on the war - after all, they can still hope for liberation.If more than one country is fighting on the losing side of the war, the entire faction will surrender when the last major country in it surrenders (you can see which countries are considered majors on the world diplomacy screen). When this happens, the game will pause and a will begin. The peace conference proceeds in stages based on the war effort expended by the victorious powers.
So, for example, if the Allies defeat and the achieved the most in the war followed by the, the United States will have the first chance to make demands on the Germans, followed by the United Kingdom. Then, the next most significant victor(s) will make their demands.This continues until all the victors are satisfied with the peace, all available demands have been made or no nation can afford to make additional demands on the defeated powers.War demands have a cost, and this cost is deducted from the war score of the victorious nation. Some demands, like making a nation a, require having that as a unless the rules of the nation allow puppeting without a war goal.Tips to getting started. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3.As the player is learning Hearts of Iron IV, remember these important steps as one formulates their plans for world domination.
One will start the game with a few of weapons already active. The most important of these will be one's infantry, so, until more military factories have been built, put most of one's energy here. When a country is new, have multiple lines of infantry going at once. If one doesn't, one will fall behind in army size. Plan out early in the game.
For instance will want to move quickly along the paths that give it claims on. The will need to get itself out of the Great Depression. Has to watch its political stability.
Have a long term goal in mind. Keep in mind you don't have to research all the National Focuses one after another. Sometimes it is best to wait a bit for the opportune moment, especially with research boosting focuses. Each nation has access to extra slots if they activate specific national focuses. These are easily identified by the beaker icons on the names (though some focuses with that icon give research bonuses instead - read the tooltips for details). The sooner these are unlocked, the better the army will fight. When researching, try not to rush too far ahead since there are significant penalties to pursuing technology too early in the timeline.
However, if one researches computing in the electrical engineering track, one can reduce their total research time by a significant margin. If a powerful is not central to one's plans, one can usually ignore this aspect of the war and research tree.
However, convoys are always useful for trade and supply, so have whatever owned should focus on that. If one is at peace, armies should so they can train until they reach regular status and earn. Adding an extra regiment, line battalion, or support company to an existing is an easy way to beef up one's forces – unless one doesn't have the equipment on hand to reinforce what one has. In wartime, it is often better to let the new equipment fall into the hands of new units instead of reinforcing and upgrading old ones. Adjust the reinforcement and upgrading of troops with an eye to what one needs now – more active units in the field now or a stronger punch in a few months time. Democracies should change their economic as soon as they can in order to free up that are otherwise dedicated to producing civilian goods.
Don't forget to rest armies after they have reached their objectives. A few days of inaction will help with organization, reinforcement and supply.Advanced Tips. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.3. Remember infrastructure and fortifications. Should one be attacked, a line of land forts and a for a defensive hold along a strategic line (like mountains or a river) could give the player time to hold off an invasion as he waits for help from allies and/or their own reinforcements.
If you lack a resource, but produce it locally (i.e. Steel is produced, but not enough of it), try to avoid trading for it unless absolutely necessary. You can research excavation under the industry tab, which will increase the amount of your produced resources by 10% for each tier, up to 50% bonus if all tiers of excavation are researched. This will free up your civilian factories from trade and allow you to construct more buildings. When there is a lack of material, remember to check what is being produced. It won't do to have too many different recruits going at once (i.e both motorized and infantry) if what the factories are producing is going toward upgrades. An example would be to trim away motorized infantry for a while and focus on just regular infantry.
If one lowers the production of motorized and focus that on upgrading an existing unit, the free factories can be moved to infantry equipment and by extension allow for the production of more units. When is low, remember to change your conscription law and try attaching Field Hospitals as support companies or disbanding units you don't need, including air wings and ships. If you must maintain a large front and can't afford to reduce the number of divisions you have, you can consider making them smaller. Quite often you can afford to remove one infantry battalion from your default divisions and they will perform almost the same. Keep in mind that the Total Mobilization (Economy Law) gives you -3% recruitable population and generally isn't worth having, unless you can spare the manpower.
The Mobile Warfare and Mass Assault Land Doctrines, as well as the Nationalist branch of the general National Focus tech tree give bonuses to your manpower pool. If you have concerns about your manpower in the long run, consider creating high-tech divisions with advanced equipment. Higher production cost is generally linked with manpower preservation - an infantry division will lose a lot more manpower than a mechanized division. Mountaineers and Marines will save you a little bit of manpower, compared to regular infantry, if deployed properly in their respective fields, due to their combat bonuses in mountains/hills and river crossings/naval invasions, as well as their slightly higher breakthrough stat, and they only cost more Infantry Weapons and training time to produce. Doctrines should be picked carefully and with consideration. It is possible to switch from one doctrine to another, should the need arise, but it takes a long time to research them and you will lose the old doctrine. The good part about doctrines is, that they don't require production and the bonuses come into play as soon as you research them.
There are about 10 separate researches in Land Doctrines, 12 in Air, and 15 in Naval. The base cost is 300 days for Land Doctrines and 200 days for Naval and Air Doctrines, so it will take considerable time to replace a fully researched doctrine. Use caution should you decide to make drastic changes. Remember to update and research and produce the next tier of equipment for units you find lacking in quality. Sometimes an upgraded version of a unit has a lot more hidden bonuses than one might expect. Different Factions have different disadvantages and advantages when it comes to securing resources. The Allies begin with the majority of Rubber production, and anyone going to war with them will have serious troubles with securing rubber without a plan to attack Allied South-east Asia, or without a lot of Refineries.
Rubber is needed for all aircraft, as well as motorized/motorized artillery and mechanized. The most of the world's Chromium can be found in the Soviet Union, Turkey, South Africa, France, Cuba and Yugoslavia. Chromium is needed for ships and heavy tanks, as well as modern tanks.
The only ships that don't require Chromium are Destroyers I-III, Light Cruisers I-III, Heavy Cruisers I-III, Submarines I-III. If you want to maintain a fleet of capital or modern ships, you will need to secure those places for yourself, or as allies. Aluminium can be found in France, the United States, Hungary, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia. Aluminium is needed for all aircraft, as well as support equipment. When planning your strategy you have to plan to either skip mass production of units requiring resources you don't have, or to plan to steal those resources from the enemy to secure your production or deny the enemy production of a particular equipment type. If you are playing as a minor nation, you might want to consider which side to join, if any, depending on the resources you will need to power your economy. Naval and Air combat seem confusing at first, but with a bit of research and understanding, turn out to be simpler than Land combat.
Look up an in-depth guide if you have problems with Air or Naval battles and/or strategy.
Hearts of Iron IV Photo: Paradox InteractiveEntering The Field: Land, Sea And AirDifferent types of units enter the field in different ways.: in the building screen you're only building their equipment. You still need to train the soldiers to actually use the equipment, which you can do in the deployment screen., however, are automatically deployed from the building screen (and you can choose the location in a small icon that should start ticked to ‘auto’). Once built, appear in your hangar, which has no size limits. They're useless there, so get them to the front by clicking on the insignia on the map of one of your airfields. You can also deploy directly to the decks of your aircraft carriers. Either way, once you transfer the planes to airfields or carriers, they can be assigned to missions.Using Support PositionsResearching can give your army a major edge as you improve your medics, mechanics and other behind-the-front-lines forces. However, to actually reap the rewards of these developments, you have to edit the composition of your divisions in the deployment screen.
You can choose the makeup of each division and add the support positions to the vanilla infantry divisions. It will take more training before divisions with heavy support units can enter the field, but they can give you a significant edge.
Read More.Division TrainingDivisions train at roughly the same speed—you can train ten divisions at once at the same speed as just one. The only limitations: you need the hardware (tanks, guns, etc.) for the units or the training will stall out, and you need sufficient manpower. Training naturally scales up with how quickly you can manufacture weapons, which will usually be the limiting factor early on.Using Armies EffectivelyThe best way to manage your troops is with armies. The tutorial shows you how to make them, but that’s about it. Don’t just lump a bunch of random troops into a giant army for each front and go at it.
You want to be a little more nuanced when you form your armies. For instance, to fight a campaign on a large front, you might want a very large infantry army. These can deploy to a large section of the front and will spread out and defend it.
Then, you can add smaller specialized armies to individual sections of the same front by holding right-click and drawing the section using the front line selection tool. This gives you more tactical options, like having the infantry army push forward everywhere as your tanks try to crack through the line in the south. Pulling units from one army to another isn’t the easiest thing to do in the interface, so be careful and form them right in the first place to save yourself some time.The FrontWe included this tip in too, but if you’re messing it up, it’ll fix a lot of your problems at one go. When you're drawing your battle plan, you aren’t drawing the path where your armies should move.
Hearts Of Iron 4 Cheats
Instead, you’re drawing the new front line, rather than the line of movement. Your armies will automatically advance based on the front line you draw. Battle plans can have multiple steps, too: just draw further front lines and your armies will push forward to those after getting to the first ones.Any other big Hearts of Iron IV unit tips you want to throw into the mix?
Welcome toThis is a sub-reddit for Hearts of Iron 4. It is a general subreddit for the Grand Strategy Game from Paradox Interactive.Our Discord Address is:. Hover your mouse over any of the boxes below to view relevant information.RulesFor the full rules, click.Posts must be related to Hearts of Iron. Just the title of the post being relevant does not qualify.No memes, image macros, reaction pictures, or similar. Post those in.No links to pirated materials, pirated game mods, or key resellers.
General discussion of piracy or leaked content is allowed.Adhere to the Reddit content policy and the reddiquette.Explain what you want people to look at when you post a screenshot. Explanations should be posted as a reddit comment - referencing the title is not enough.All giveaways, surveys, and petitions must be approved by the moderators first.
Game-trade threads are not allowed. This includes games and expansions.Users may only make one self-promotional submission per week.All posts must have link flair. Please mark spoilers as spoilers.We may occasionally ban specific topics that have flooded the subreddit. For information on topics that are temporarily banned, please view our.
Temporarily banned:. Content that breaks the spirit of these rules may be removed at moderator discretion. 6-14-16Titans guide to GermanyA step by step guide.1936 start, Normal, Ironman, Historical AI.Please note, this guide will assume that the reader knows the basic operations of the game.Start the game, doughnut un-pause as we have a lot of work to do.First select all ground troops, you should have 30 in total. Make a new army group and assign everyone to that group. I rename this army to 'training camp' and set them to garrison somewhere, it doesnt matter where we just need to give them an order to make things easier later on.
I set this units reinforcement priority to low. Set them to exercise to gain XP and gain army experience.Now separate all your tanks, you should have 3 divisions, place these in another new army.
I like to name this one Panzer group, or Tank group. So I can keep track of all my tanks. I assign Rommel here.Now separate out the one division of motorized and (you guessed it) set them to a new army named motorized. Now I can easily keep track of how many and what kind of tanks and motorized divisions I have.I put Fedor Von bock here since he doesnt have any special bonus like Rommel so his panzer leader isnt wasted.Set these to high priority.We are done for the moment with the army units, now for the navy.Move and rebase all your naval units to the same base, I like to use something away from the UK and France so they dont get wrecked by port strikes while repairing. Mass all your navy under two leaders when it gets to port. One for subs and one for surface. Put the surface fleet on patrol in the baltic and send the subs to convoy raid around the UK.I dont do anything with the air forces yet so now we are done with the right side of the screen.Now I start at the top left and work to the right.Focus is now Rhineland, I have never personally seen it get challenge but it can happen.
If it does I just restart, no big loss.Research, basic tools, Construction 1, EM engineering and support weapons.Skip to trade, trade for OIl from the soviet union and rubber from Netherlands.Now for construction, this is where you as the player need to decide how you want to play. Do you want to balance an ok surface fleet with your army or do you want to focus on your army to make it the best you can.
Eventually you will need some sort of navy incase you need to invade the U.S.I have done both and in this guide I am going to try and strike a balance, if you want to focus on your army then just skip the naval focus I take and take something else, instead of building naval bases build more military factories.I line up max factories in Ostmark, Niederschlesin and oberschlesin. (5/6/6) and (4-3-6) naval yards Hinterpommern (main navel base for me) Pommern and Ostpreussen.Now I set up two lines of Infantry equipment, the first gets 10 factories, the second gets 1.Then two lines of support equipment, 2 motorized and the single artillery rounds out my top 7. Factories get assigned as they come up in the order you have things.Light tank II gets position 8 and I assign 5 factories to it for now.Assign two lines of BF 109 with 5 factories each and priority 9 and 10. We want to have 2,000 to 3,000 fighters before we go to war, but more is better. Assign 3 factories to JU87 and replace tactical bomber with naval bomber and assign 3 factories.Now for naval production. Assign maximum docks to each line, as one gets finished they start producing the next thing in line. This is how we will grow a fleet quickly, by working on several large ships at the same time.
Reduce the sub line to 1 unit and leave the others alone. Set the spawn point to Hinterpommern. I like to manual set all ships to Hinterpommern as is mostly out of the way of any major airforce.Start a new line for Battleship (1), Battle crusier (2), Light cruiser (5) and destroyer (15). Assign all factories and spawn in Hinterpommern.Now for the recruit and deploy tab.I like to rename my current three major units to, Basic infantry, Light panzer and Morotized. This makes it easier to see what I am producing, and what these units are at a glance.Now train 10 units of infantry in parallel, 2 light panzers and 2 motorized.Remember when I told you to set the training camp group to garrison?
We are going to set the spawn point of the new infantry to the area we selected for the training camp and set them to join the training camp when they are produced. This reduces travel time and places them directly into training.Open the logistics tab.
If you take nothing else away from this guide TAKE THIS TO HEART and you will be better for it.Wasting production on things you are not using is a good way to loose the game, or at least not be as strong as you could be. I think by far most effective start is to order 30 infantry as fast as possible and deploy them as soon as they have minimum required training.That will get requirements for Anschluss few days after first focus is finished. I think 10 days of focus is saved so you can have Anschluss finished 140 days from start of game.
Then it is easy to get enough troops to demand Sudetenland and annex whole Czechoslovakia.For second government change I like doing free market. It means I have to sacrifice 2 factories to import steel but gives pretty big speed bonuses to various things.
Once I start producing my own oil and rubber I close the market. I think its great you made this guide and it could be helpful to new players, but I think you oversimplified a lot of things and ignored really helpful mechanics built into the game.I could point out a lot of things that you could do better, but one thing you neglected was simply supplying China with arms to keep Japan from winning and keeping world tension down. I have supplied China with up to 20% of my monthly production in their war against Japan and kept them in a quagmire while I negotiate the annexation of half of Europe with relatively low world tension.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |