Hearts of Iron IV Player Resources

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PDXKatten

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Generals of the Hearts of Iron IV Community!

We've created this repository of knowledge for new and existing players. Here you can find glorious links, tutorials, and other resources to support you in your search for world domination.



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 active production lines of weapons. The most important of these will be one's infantry equipment, so, until more military factories have been built, put most of one's energy here.
  • When your country is training new divisions, have multiple lines of infantry going at once. If you don't, you will fall behind in army size.
  • Plan out National focuses early in the game. For instance, Germany will want to move quickly along the paths that give it claims on Austria and Czechoslovakia. The USA will need to get itself out of the Great Depression. France has to watch its political stability. Have a long-term goal in mind. Remember that you don't have to research all the National Focuses one after another. Sometimes it is best to wait for the opportune moment, especially with research boosting focuses.
  • Each nation has access to extra research slots if they activate specific national focuses. These are easily identified by the beaker icons on the names (though some focus with that icon gives 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 navy is not central to one's war plans, one can usually ignore this aspect of the war and research tree. However, convoys are always useful for trade and supply, so it's best to have whatever dockyards you own focus on them.
  • If one is at peace, armies should exercise so they can train until they reach regular status and earn experience. Adding an extra regiment, line battalion, or support company to an existing division design 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 or a stronger punch in a few months' time.
  • Democracies should change their economic ideas as soon as they can in order to free up civilian factories 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.
  • Remember infrastructure and fortifications. Should one be attacked, a line of land forts and a battle plan for a defensive hold along a strategic line (like mountains or a river) could give the player time to hold off an invasion as they wait 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 focuses 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 Manpower 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 choices in Land Doctrines, 12 in Air, and 15 in Naval. The base cost is 100 experience for Land Doctrines, Air Doctrines and for Naval 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, 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 trouble securing rubber without a plan to attack Allied Southeast Asia, or without a lot of Refineries. Rubber is needed for all aircraft, as well as motorized/motorized artillery and mechanized. 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, and 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, and 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, turns 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. Have fun!

Tutorials.png


Base Game | TutorialsㅤㅤㅤㅤBy Blood Alone | Tutorials

No Step Back | TutorialsㅤㅤㅤㅤLa Résistance | Tutorials

Man the Guns | Tutorialsㅤ

Peace Conferences
By Bitt3rSteel

Basic Modding LessonsㅤㅤㅤAdvanced Modding Lessons
By the Iron WorkshopㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBy the Iron Workshop

guides.png


Template Collection ㅤㅤUltimate Template Guide
By MrNostalgicㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBy Vezachs

Navy for Beginners ㅤㅤㅤㅤUltimate Navy Guide
By MrNostalgic ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBy Vezachs

Modding Guide

jOIN THE COMMUNIITY.png


Twitter: https://twitter.com/HOI_Game
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Heartsofiron
Discord: https://discord.gg/hoi4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearts_of_iron_pdx/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/


If you have suggestions for items to include in this repository, please post your suggestions in this thread and tag me!


 

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Wonderful stuff! Thank you to everyone involved.

If I could ask for anything more though, it would be that the Modding guides included or were supplemented by written materials, rather than relying solely on videos. But I'm certainly not decrying the effort that's been put in!
 
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Thanks for this source in info. Now it will be a little bit easier to get new friends in to the game. :)

Can I also ask when we will get some news about the next war effort beta patch or maybe the new DD?
 
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There are about 10 separate researches in Land Doctrines, 12 in Air, and 15 in Naval. The base cost is 200 days for Land Doctrines/Air Doctrines and 250 days for Naval Doctrines, so it will take considerable time to replace a fully researched doctrine.
Are doctrines still researched? I thought they were acquired through spending experience
 
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I guess this is at the very least, something. I personally hoped for more, but some of my hopes are unrealistic. Thank you, PDX, for the all of 5 things you did in this list (and the list itself, I guess).
 
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This list is generally good, but I found an error:

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.
This advice only applies during peacetime*, since if you're at war and you're on total mob you can click the "women in the workforce" button and regain the 3% recruitable pop.

*Japan and Bulgaria, the two countries that can get total mob pre-war, have focus(es) or decision(s) to make up fore the manpower loss (not fully, but it's more than enough).
 
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I have checked this page like 10 times a day since the last post for a new dev diary and i come back to tutorials :)
This reminded me of an old copy pasta

10 years since dev diary.i walk through the empty streets trying to think of something else but my path always leads to the forum. i stare at the screen for hours and try to summon the lords. i read other forum posts but it is no good. i flame devs in this post and try to resist the tyrannical mods but it is all meaningless. the end is near.i then usually read some old dev diaries and cry myself to sleep
 
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This reminded me of an old copy pasta

10 years since dev diary.i walk through the empty streets trying to think of something else but my path always leads to the forum. i stare at the screen for hours and try to summon the lords. i read other forum posts but it is no good. i flame devs in this post and try to resist the tyrannical mods but it is all meaningless. the end is near.i then usually read some old dev diaries and cry myself to sleep
you just explained my life this month
 
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I suggest that game developers learn details of game 1st - before giving advices and make changes in game.
It is the biggest problem of HOI4, that team has no insight into game, but is courageous to make changes (which give no sense than).

Examples :
* you obviously missed option to upgrade weapons via experience and made paralel non-conceptual designers - which makes game unrealistic and adds micro management
* you totally destroyed air combat by reducing number of planes in unit - game has now extreme volume of micromanagement with assigning of aces and management of air fleets in later game (you have over 50 fleets, if you fight for victory)

Game lost the point, which was introduced as main improvement to previous versions - reduced micromanagement. HOI4 has now much more micro management (if you understand game and use all options) than HOI3, HOI2 and the most enjoyable part (own strategy on map) has lost most of it (auto/planning princip.
It can be said that game is develpped in favour of fast paced non-deep multiplayer gameplay and you sooner or later lose all of us, who started with HOI... because it is no more game we loved. It is better to play HOI2 than HOI4!
 
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This list is generally good, but I found an error:


This advice only applies during peacetime*, since if you're at war and you're on total mob you can click the "women in the workforce" button and regain the 3% recruitable pop.

*Japan and Bulgaria, the two countries that can get total mob pre-war, have focus(es) or decision(s) to make up fore the manpower loss (not fully, but it's more than enough).
Thank you for catching this, Il go over and reword a few areas to incorporate that and a few other issues I noticed. ^^