Hearts of Iron IV Redux:

[IthilanorStPete]

The old HoI4 thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?490250-Hearts-of-Iron-IV-thread-The-Fatherland-Vs-Mother-Russia)died a few months ago, so let's have a new one!

I just picked up HoI4, played the tutorial as Italy, then started a fresh game (again as Italy). This is the first Paradox game that I've started playing without reading a bunch of AARs; now I know how intimidating it is to learn these games! I've since read a few threads on the Paradox forums, notably these (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/building-the-italian-juggernaut-an-hoi4-aar.939550/) two (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/building-the-italian-juggernaut-an-italian-aar-ii.940081/) by one of the beta testers, but I'm still working on grasping all the mechanics.

So how's the game holding up, a few months after release? What divisional compositions are working well for everyone? Had any awesome war stories of late?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I also picked this up recently. My first game as France... failed interestingly, due to my...interesting decisions. Decided to use dice rolls to make major decisions. Went hardline against Hitler, didn't let him take the Rhineland, which was good. But then I decided to also go hardline with the Sudentenland, and Britain didn't back me, so it was Me and Czechoslovakia vs Germany. Because the Rhineland was demilitarized, I was actually able to push really far into Germany, ended up taking Frankfurt, Nuremburg, and Munich, and threatening Essen. My tech decisions ended me, though. My air-force tech was high, but my production was too low to fight the Germans, so my air force was wiped out. Meanwhile, my tank tech was too low, and I couldn't properly counter Panzer divisions. My northern push up the Rhine was ended by a pocket of 3 panzer divisions in Bitburg that required all of my own armoured divisions just to contain, let alone to eliminate, but my southern push into Bavaria went well. The Czechs also did well, a slow start ended up with them capturing Vienna, all of Silesia, and Dresden for a time, before they catastrophically overextended and collapsed, right when my Manpower ran out. I never managed to get positive political points to conscript new soldiers. I withdrew all soldiers from the colonies, as I was pushed back to the Maginot line, and Britain ended up joining in when Luxembourg was attacked, but the dice decision-maker decided that it was prime time for a Communist Revolution, and the Germans broke through the Maginot Line when I had to divide my remaining decisions to cover 3 fronts in France. Oof.

My current game is as the Soviets, with much more logical decisions. Save one. Poland gave up Danzig. And Lithuania refused to give up Memel. So instead of Axis vs Allies, the war was Axis vs Poland-Baltic Countries. And now it's just USSR-Axis. I'm only just introducing the T-34/76 into the line, most of my armoured divisions are still T-28s and T-26s. I do have a handful of elite divisions from helping to win the Spanish Civil War, and keeping China alive against Japan, so hopefully they'll help? And hopefully losing 4 elite Mountain divisions doesn't cripple China...

[IthilanorStPete]

I also picked this up recently. My first game as France... failed interestingly, due to my...interesting decisions. Decided to use dice rolls to make major decisions. Went hardline against Hitler, didn't let him take the Rhineland, which was good. But then I decided to also go hardline with the Sudentenland, and Britain didn't back me, so it was Me and Czechoslovakia vs Germany. Because the Rhineland was demilitarized, I was actually able to push really far into Germany, ended up taking Frankfurt, Nuremburg, and Munich, and threatening Essen. My tech decisions ended me, though. My air-force tech was high, but my production was too low to fight the Germans, so my air force was wiped out. Meanwhile, my tank tech was too low, and I couldn't properly counter Panzer divisions. My northern push up the Rhine was ended by a pocket of 3 panzer divisions in Bitburg that required all of my own armoured divisions just to contain, let alone to eliminate, but my southern push into Bavaria went well. The Czechs also did well, a slow start ended up with them capturing Vienna, all of Silesia, and Dresden for a time, before they catastrophically overextended and collapsed, right when my Manpower ran out. I never managed to get positive political points to conscript new soldiers. I withdrew all soldiers from the colonies, as I was pushed back to the Maginot line, and Britain ended up joining in when Luxembourg was attacked, but the dice decision-maker decided that it was prime time for a Communist Revolution, and the Germans broke through the Maginot Line when I had to divide my remaining decisions to cover 3 fronts in France. Oof.

My current game is as the Soviets, with much more logical decisions. Save one. Poland gave up Danzig. And Lithuania refused to give up Memel. So instead of Axis vs Allies, the war was Axis vs Poland-Baltic Countries. And now it's just USSR-Axis. I'm only just introducing the T-34/76 into the line, most of my armoured divisions are still T-28s and T-26s. I do have a handful of elite divisions from helping to win the Spanish Civil War, and keeping China alive against Japan, so hopefully they'll help? And hopefully losing 4 elite Mountain divisions doesn't cripple China...

That's certainly an...interesting approach as France. I'm a little surprised you did as well as that, especially without the UK's backup. I'm curious how the Soviet game goes; seems like the strategy is to withdraw, buy time, spread out the front, then gradually push back.


I did the tutorial as Italy, then started a new game as Italy to get a fresh start and follow the AAR I linked in the OP. I conquered Ethiopia, Albania surrendered without a fight, but the UK guaranteed Yugoslavia and I got pulled in to the war by 1939. It was pretty overwhelming when it started with everything going on in the air and at sea; I ended up quitting and deciding to try learning as a simpler country. I went with Poland, following the wiki's guide (http://www.hoi4wiki.com/Poland#Fascism_Route) to joining the Axis. I've conquered Lithuania (easily) and Czechslovakia (less easily); France guaranteed Czechslovakia, so I had to join the Axis and ally with Germany, starting the war in '39. I had been supporting a fascist coup in France, which ended up firing right as Germany invaded Benelux and went around the Maginot line, so France folded pretty quickly. The Soviets ended up declaring war, though their invasion attempt was pretty halfhearted. With a bit of help from Italy, I've been able to push back, and took Kiev before the 1939-40 winter. I'm probably going to have to rely on Italy/Germany/Japan quite a bit, though, since I'm already running into supply and production issues.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Honestly, having the Rhineland still demilitarized saved me. The way I played it, I divided the Maginot forces into 2 armies. The northern army started first, with all of my motorized, armoured, and cavalry divisions, with the aim of capturing the whole western bank of the Rhine. They were able to take half of it before German forces managed to actually engage them. Once that happened, I let the southern front keep calm until the Germans had sent many soldiers to the northern front and it was clear my initial push had been halted. By this point it was about a month into the war, and it was already clear that the Germans would defeat me in the skies. At that point, I activated my second front (with my Mountaineers in the charge). My intention was merely to take pressure off the north, so that they could continue to press onto the northern cluster of cities around Essen, but in fact they ended up pushing well into Bavaria, as far as Tyrol even. This was month 2. Month 3 the Czech started their offensives.

So basically, every time one of my offensives faltered, a new one would start up that would allow the previous ones to advance again. Up until I ran out of Manpower, ran out of Tanks, and everything started to go downhill. Even then, my southern front was slowly advancing towards the Czech border to encircle ALL OF AUSTRIA, until the Czechs collapsed, then my north collapsed, and the south had to withdraw.

My Soviet game seems to have stalled. Germany declares war on me because I refused the Ribbentrop Pact, but my Naval map-mode likes to crash. Which is frustrating because a major part of my war plan is a naval landing at Riga. Ah well.

[Manticoran]

I play pretty heavily modded, but just finished a Persia(Nationalist Iran) game that resulted with me controlling all of the Middle East, Turkey, Greece, half of Russia, India, and 80% of Africa.

Does anyone else find it really annoying whenever you're not on the Allies to end the war? Like, even if you've peace'd out the Comintern or Axis, and conquered everything but Australia/random islands/USA, it feels like there should be a way to end the war without being forced to figure out a way to invade the US.

[IthilanorStPete]

Honestly, having the Rhineland still demilitarized saved me. The way I played it, I divided the Maginot forces into 2 armies. The northern army started first, with all of my motorized, armoured, and cavalry divisions, with the aim of capturing the whole western bank of the Rhine. They were able to take half of it before German forces managed to actually engage them. Once that happened, I let the southern front keep calm until the Germans had sent many soldiers to the northern front and it was clear my initial push had been halted. By this point it was about a month into the war, and it was already clear that the Germans would defeat me in the skies. At that point, I activated my second front (with my Mountaineers in the charge). My intention was merely to take pressure off the north, so that they could continue to press onto the northern cluster of cities around Essen, but in fact they ended up pushing well into Bavaria, as far as Tyrol even. This was month 2. Month 3 the Czech started their offensives.

So basically, every time one of my offensives faltered, a new one would start up that would allow the previous ones to advance again. Up until I ran out of Manpower, ran out of Tanks, and everything started to go downhill. Even then, my southern front was slowly advancing towards the Czech border to encircle ALL OF AUSTRIA, until the Czechs collapsed, then my north collapsed, and the south had to withdraw.

My Soviet game seems to have stalled. Germany declares war on me because I refused the Ribbentrop Pact, but my Naval map-mode likes to crash. Which is frustrating because a major part of my war plan is a naval landing at Riga. Ah well.

What's the composition of your motorized/armored/cavalry divisions? It seems like there's a pretty firm consensus of 7 INF / 2 ART for foot infantry, but I haven't seen a consensus for motorized/armored divisions, and there's a lot of debate over whether to use self-propelled AT/AA. I'm also not sure what to do with cavalry divisions, much less cavalry regiments.

[Manticoran]

What's the composition of your motorized/armored/cavalry divisions? It seems like there's a pretty firm consensus of 7 INF / 2 ART for foot infantry, but I haven't seen a consensus for motorized/armored divisions, and there's a lot of debate over whether to use self-propelled AT/AA. I'm also not sure what to do with cavalry divisions, much less cavalry regiments.

I use groups of 4 Cavalry Divisions with an MP as my garrison units. They move fast to swarm to naval invasions, and they are very low on initial cost for how much they put down resistance.

And it depends on what kinds of tanks you're running? Small/Medium/Heavy want different things. Heavy Tanks can often just be supplemented with Infantry even, since they don't go too much faster than them.

I think for Light I tended to go 5 Light and 5 infantry-type, and for Mediums 4-6? *Shrug*

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I haven't been playing too much with division composition. I did note that I had too few infantry in my armoured units, their organization was plummeting too fast in battle.

[anjxed]

I always do Germany, with different levels of succes, but it always ends with Axis vs USA and a looooooong wait time that i just dont bother continuing. Soviet Union always gets crushed by my troops. 1 100 Infantry division to hold the line while 3 max armies of 12 mech and 12 armored armies. My infantry division has 22 width to use with the general with offensive tactics.

[IthilanorStPete]

Update on the Poland game: 1940 was relatively uneventful, with little progress made on the Soviet front. Fortunately, Hungary donated 50+ divisions to me, which gives me a lot more flexibility for '41. Not sure why they gave their divisions to me instead of Germany, but I'll take it. I invaded Latvia and Estonia in the spring of '41, so I might be able to press for Leningrad, but the main thrust is going to be in the south. I've forced a crossing of the Dnieper near Kiev; I plan on pushing southeast from there for the Don basin, rolling up the southern part of the Soviet line along the way. If everything goes well, I figure I'll be able to force surrender by '42, then I can look at helping Germany out with Operation Sea Lion.

[mollylayne]

Hey, I too use groups of 4 Cavalry Divisions with an MP as garrison units. I remember one of my friends was also talking about the same thing discussed over here. He has been playing this game ever since his uncle bought this from Instant-gaming (https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/) site.