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[Hearts of Iron IV] Monarchist Germany vs Fascist Britain vs Socialist USA
Prisca
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Developed by Paradox Interactive and due for release this June 6th is Hearts of Iron IV, the next installment in the epic WWII grand strategy series! I already have Stellaris per-ordered, but I have more interest in HoI IV due to its focus on this extremely turbulent period of history.
Let's get the discussion started and get the hype train going! (4 more weeks until release!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfMziujb92MPrisca on
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A link to all 55 dev diaries can be found here.
I loved hearts of Iron III, and I'm 100% on the Hearts of Iron IV hype train.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
http://store.steampowered.com/app/394360/
I agree that the previous HOI titles were a tad dry, hopefully IV will still be engaging but easier to learn as well.
I had a similar but less severe experience trying to get on board for EU3.
But by the time CK2/EUIV arrived I got hooked, I have a couple of hundred hours in each of those now, so if they deliver on making HOI4 as accessible then I am all in on this.
.....
But to be honest, it's the multiplayer potential that really has me excited here.
PSN: TheBrayster_92
So color me excited for IV since, right from the beginning, Paradox have said they wanted to make this version much less a slave to history than the previous titles.
Alternate histories weren't really supported in HoI3 (at least not by scripting), but I've conquered most of the civilized world as Italy, Nationalist China and freaking Brazil.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
You still have divisions in provinces.
I think you're reading too much into "fronts". They needed a label and that's the one they used, but most generals can only command a few divisions. I'd think that Corps is a better term, although if you turn a general into a Marshal, he can command ALL the divisions and then "front" might be a better term.
Each of the fronts can be given a series of objective lines to take, and you can modify the main axis of the attack to take specific provinces more quickly. The front can also be given a fallback line. After you tell the general to execute the attack, you can take command of individual divisions if you feel the general needs to do some special thing RIGHT NOW.
You can even give a front multiple axes of advance and assign the mechanized divisions to the left flank and the marines to the river crossings.
This, to me, has always been one of the most fascinating design problems for Paradox's grand stategy games. It really is a razors edge. They are innately historical games, and much of the audience would not be interested in the same game without the historical basis. I love the parts of history they cover, and I love playing them to experience that history in new ways.
However, history is filled with losers, and if the game follows history too closely it would not be fun to play as one of those doomed powers (i.e. You always lose in this game as Germany by 1945). Similarly, games thrive on choice and agency, people would be bored if the strict historical coding forced every move. If the mechanics strong arm you too much, it feels like you might as well be reading a history book.
On the flipside, with too little mechanical guidance, everything goes to hell the minute you start playing. You can pick a historically accurate starting point, but as the game goes on everything gets crazier and crazier, with completely improbable historical events. At that point, why bother with the historical setting? You end up with something as accurate as a game of Civ V. Non historical games like Stelarris sidestep this nicely.
In the end, I think they have to find something in between. You need to feel free to do anything, but what was historically the best option should feel like the best option. They need to replicate the conditions and their original appeal, without forcing the outcome. You should organically, almost accidentally, repeat or resemble history. I'm hoping Paradox can achieve this, they've done pretty well with past games (better than any other developer I know). Ofcourse. they also have to keep in mind the audience that leans entirely on the strategic over history, trying to win the war single handedly as Ireland just because. But I think ideally they need to find some balance, you shouldn't automatically lose as Germany but it should be damn hard to win. I want to get stuck grinding gears in the East and then learn about Stalingrad, with the new perspective the game has provided.
AI looks really really bad with people beating Germany with Poland on the first try and whatnot.
Not super surprising I guess but still a little disappointing.
Well, Paradox usually don't leave their games hanging, so if ti's bad it gets patched up as well as possible.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Is there an easy way to tell what sort of infantry divisions I have without having to hover over all of them one by one?
Also what's a reasonably interesting nation that wont just dump me into micro management hell?
Hearts of Iron is the only paradox grand strategy game I haven't played.
...are there pops?
Alot of it feels like pretty fuzzy kinda complicated. The sort you can just kinda fiddle with now and figure out what the result of was later.
Right now I'm seeing how communist I can make Italy pre-war.
You can pick to have a more "historical" game or not. You have options in game to more or less easily convert you're government to Fascism, Communisim, or Democracy. Either peaceful or Civil War.
I've already seen some ahistorical events. Like the Hindenburg landing safely or Amelia Earhart sucussefully flying around the world.
Want to play as Ireland, convert to Fascism and take part in Operation Sea Lion to put an end to the Crown's tyranny? You can!
Democratic revolution in the USSR coupled with a Fascist America leading in to a topsy-turvy Cold War? You bet!
Want to know something horrifying? HoI:IV is far and away more streamlined and "simplified"* compared to the previous games.
*in a good way.
Ha.Me too.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
However, I found myself a little bored doing the same old WW2 again.
HOI 3 had a mod which randomised the entire world (funnily enough called the Random map and scenario generator for HOI 3...) which was incredibly fun to play because every game was different.
I'll continue to play HOI 4 but what I'm really looking forward to is the RandomHOI4 mod.
1. Before you unpause the game, fix your fleets. Your fleets will be all messy and hard to keep track of and if you don't organize them how you want at the very start it's incredibly easy to lose track of them.
2. If you are a fascist or a communist, switch to war economy as soon as you can! It lets you use your civilian factories more efficiently.
3. Build industry. So much industry.
4. Attack the dutch for fun and profit.
5. When gearing up for war, plan ahead! That way when Germany does a hail mary war declaration and you're caught with your pants down, you can turn it into something like this:
I found this one a good start for production and trade. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearts-of-iron-4-beginner-guide.942361/
Well, not really, but I at least have an entry level understanding of what everything in the game is supposed to do and how to control it.
I'd be starting with CK2 :razz:
So I've played a few "get to know the game... games". I've a handle on things and I think I've settled on Argentina, convert to fascism, conquer South America as my first real game.
HOI III had so much more not-obvious micromanagement involved.
My third attempt is going... better. As soon as Japan pushed WT over 10%, I justified a war on Romania. Apparently throwing your weight around is the best way to make friends in this cause as soon as the war ended, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Latvia all came begging to join my faction. I've lost a bit of territory to the German assault, and they broke through the Slovakian border and Yugoslavia just got wrecked my Italy so my Romanian conquest is currently in the process of being gobbled up but that seems to have diverted a lot of their divisions and their assaults on my line have stopped. So I've launched a counter assault from Gdansk (Danzig) and if I can take some factories from them or better yet push to Berlin while they are distracted I might swing this around. If not, the Soviets are currently working on Anti-Fascist Diplomacy so I hope the USSR can and will break the pact once they are ready or Japan will attack them and drag them into the war.
The weirdest thing continues to be that WWII has so far been prevented in favor of a minor war in the Balkans? Does anyone have any ideas of how I can drag France and Britain into this?
Well, turns out I didn't need to worry about as Italy attacked Greece which brought the Allies into the war. Germany was pretty much already folding to my assault army, and I made a run for the sea while they tangled with France. Less good news, about half way to the Channel Russia decided they really wanted Latvia for some reason, and I had no choice but to go to war with them. Luckily their justification gave me some time to prepare so I sent Field Marshal Sikorski and every division I could spare to establish a defensive line in the east.
I'm not sure what the Soviets are doing, but it is now '42 and they have never seriously assaulted said line, and in fact I have been able to make some gains like taking Minsk.
Germany eventually capitulated, although the damn French let them take part of the Maginot line and it took forever to dig them out of it, but then things got pretty wacky as the Soviets apparently had military access with Germany and sent a bunch of divisions into German and Italian territory, but they are at war only with me and not the Allies, so basically the border ended up a complete mess with Russian pockets of resistance all over the place. It's taken me most of '42 to clean that up and establish a solid front. I will soon complete the liberation of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria while the Allies are pressing down Italy itself. Once I am back to having just one front, I will need to start working out a plan to push into Russia cause I imagine if I just let them keep producing they will bury me in men at some point.
I have now completed the war in the Balkans, surrounded the Black Sea, taken Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad, and am now just rushing into Siberia to force Soviet capitulation. I may then have to go invade Japan myself because the Allies keep trying and failing.
My general strategy I think has worked very well. The bulk of my divisions are basic Infantry with just support Artillery and AT, meant to just entrench and hold ground along the front line. I then have a second army of currently 39 divisions which is my assault force and has a core of elite Szturmowcy divisions which have inline Artillery and AT, plus just more Infantry. Around half-way through the war with Germany I added a battalion of Heavy Tanks to them. The most recent reform I made was to add another battalion of Super Heavy Behemot tanks (because seriously look at that thing it is amazing), and Marine battalions for helping with rivers. This army then deploys on a pretty narrow flank and makes a push for a city or the next natural defensive line.
I have also achieved complete air superiority, and am currently training 24 tank divisions to create a second assault army.