Hearts of Iron IV Beginner’s Guide

The grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV was released in 2016 and comes from developer Paradox Development Studio. In it, you take on the role of a state power and intervene in the Second World War. Change the course of history in the process!

We have a Hearts of Iron IV beginner’s guide for you so that you’re off to a good start in the complicated game.

1) The user interface – values and numbers

The user interface in Hearts of Iron IV shows you some content and facts. In the beginning, this display can be very confusing and it’s hard to keep track of everything. Generally, the interface will inform you about your selected power or country with which you’re going to war. The information is divided into a total of twelve subcategories.

• The first of them is Manpower, which indicates how many soldiers you have at your disposal for the war. The value applies to land, air, and naval forces.
  
• Stability represents the support of your people for their government. The higher the Stability, the longer your nation will last in war, especially when it comes to fierce battles and possible enemy superiority. Certain government officials can positively influence this value. Also, you can improve the underlying national spirit trait by adding certain people, traits, etc., and at the same time increase stability.
  
• The War Support value indicates if and how much your people support a war.
  
• Political Power, represented in points, can be used for diplomacy and laws. Two points are collected daily for this by your leader in the party or faction. You can also use it to set national priorities and hire advisors at the same time.
  
• In the factories, which are divided into civil and military factories as well as shipyards, you can accept orders for your country.
  
• Convoys in Hearts of Iron IV can be used to transport your military units, as well as raw materials.
  
• The experience of your military is broken down in more detail by the Military Experience tab.
  
• Whether you have to act diplomatically or can dare a military operation, you can see when looking at the World Tension. This is displayed as a percentage and is influenced, e.g., by war declarations or civil unrest.
  
• Your nation has a maximum fuel capacity depending on the available oil, research, and economic situation. This is displayed in the Fuel menu.
  
• Command Power describes the ability of your government to exert direct influence on the military. A high Command Power can be advantageous for military missions, as the chain of command can be bypassed.
  
• Logistics Capacity (Fulfillment) represents your supply lines as well as their satisfaction. This lets you see if you can properly supply your population and troops.
  
• If you’re currently researching nuclear weapons, an icon of such a weapon will appear and the number of nuclear bombs currently available will also be shown.

2) Which nations can you choose?

Hearts of Iron IV starts in 1936, three years before the war begins. At this point, the seven strongest powers in the world are France, the German Empire, Italy, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and the Soviet Union.

• France‘s government is weakened and divided by communist influences at the start of the game. Nevertheless, they are considered a victorious power in World War I and have a huge colonial empire in Africa in addition to the European heartland. The military is rather outdated and thus the country would not be particularly good at defending itself in the event of an enemy attack.
  
• The German Reich has been a fascist dictatorship since 1933 under the leadership of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler. The government is preparing for a new war after eliminating the oppositional forces. Thus, Germany also triggers the Second World War with the invasion of Poland and is the driving force of some early war events with its technological developments.
  
• The southern European country of Italy is one of the most important nations due to its strong navy and colonies. However, the military, as well as the colonies, are only average compared to France and especially the United Kingdom.
  
• In 1936, the USA is considered the only major power outside of Europe and Asia and is one of the richest and largest countries in the world. At the beginning of the game, however, the USA is still very much limited by its national spirit as well as the law. If they overcome these hurdles and expand their military power, they can rise to become the absolute superpower.
  
• In 1939, the United Kingdom declares war on the German Reich after attacking Poland. They are considered the main power of the Allies during World War II. Thus, after the military defeat of France, the United Kingdom was also the only Allied nation in Europe. The United Kingdom was militarily active in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
  
• Even before the outbreak of World War II, Japan had begun a war with China in 1937 and conquered much of eastern China in the Second Sino-Japanese War. They then conquered British Malaysia, part of the British Empire, and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). As the strongest power in the Pacific region, the Japanese Empire entered World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
  
• The Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) is the largest country in the world and leads the Comintern faction. It has many natural as well as human resources. The USSR exercises control over the entire northern third of Asia and the eastern parts of Europe.

3) Tips on the Hearts of Iron IV nations

To get bonuses on passed laws in Hearts of Iron IV, you can use up to three political advisors. Their fields of activity are economics, trade, and conscription laws. You can declare a military leader as the commander-in-chief of your force. However, he can only be assigned to one of the three fields: navy, air force, or army.

Via your nation’s flag, you can access the national priorities after clicking on your leader’s portrait. After 70 days, you will have completed one of these objectives. You can think of the national focus as a technology tree.

Via the hammer in the user interface, you open the menu Events and Decisions. Here you can also make decisions for your nation. Your population in Hearts of Iron IV then carries out certain projects. Examples include changing ideology, waging border wars, banning political parties, censoring prices, or even digging for resources.

Such projects usually cost between 25 and 150 points of political power. You can improve your industry via the Production and Research tab. Research can be improved with the support of the theorists. Afterward, this will also give you bonuses on combat and weapon systems.

4) Map Modes

Land map mode is the umbrella term for the following three other modes in Hearts of Iron IV. It’s the mode that’s seen in most of the game. Therefore, it is also referred to as the default map mode.

In general, nations represent the borders of countries. There is diplomatic interaction between the individual nations. Each nation is composed of different states or provinces. At the state level, improvements are made to factories, infrastructure, as well as other areas such as civilian factories.

However, each state can only make a small number of these improvements. Large states are once again divided into provinces, whose interaction works through land units.

As mentioned earlier, there are three other map modes in Hearts of Iron IV, but these largely ignore the national borders of regions or territories. Therefore, these can include several states at the same time.

Among them is the naval map mode, which represents the sea regions and through which orders are given to fleets. All sea regions have their own names.

The Hearts of Iron IV air map mode, on the other hand, overlaps the land and naval map modes. Air bases visible there are responsible for certain regions and air squadrons receive missions and orders through them. The strategic regions are the framework for the air base’s aircraft in missions.

The last thing to mention is the supply map mode. The supply or resupply is built around the rail systems. The map also shows whether supply nodes can be supported by your troops in the state. The colored map contains three regions, which are marked with blue, green, yellow as well as red borders. The colors are meant to represent the conditions regarding sufficient supply in the regions.

5) Hearts of Iron IV Beginner’s Guide: Research Guide

In Hearts of Iron IV, you have three to four research slots at your disposal. You can unlock more slots through the national focus. A total of eleven research categories can be explored. These are infantry, artillery, support companies, armor, naval, air, engineering, and industry technology.

The Artillery category offers innovations for artillery as well as tank and air defense, and in the Aircraft section, bombers or even fighters can be researched. In addition, the productivity of the industry can be increased and all infantry types can be unlocked.

Combat bonuses can be obtained within the land doctrine, air doctrine, and naval doctrine. Tanks and warships, as well as submarines, can be unlocked and in general, technology can be improved and support such as engineers and mechanics can be hired.

How can you lead your nation to victory with PLITCH?

With our Hearts of Iron IV beginner’s guide, it should no longer be difficult for you to get off to a good start in the game. It’s also a lot of fun to explore the game yourself and to constantly improve.

However, if you currently don’t have enough time to play or are simply too impatient, we have the optimal solution for you with PLITCH’s Hearts of Iron IV cheats. For example, you can increase your army experience by 50 points or your command power by 10 points. Furthermore, you can unlock instant national focuses or finish buildings immediately.

Check out our Hearts of Iron IV video if you want more info on our Hearts of Iron IV cheats.

Happy Gaming!