Hearts of Iron [official site] is the one Paradox grand strategy series that I’ve been unable to befriend. Partly that’s because it’s a more guided experience, a game about a specific war rather than a historical sandbox and it’s partly because of the micromanagement involved in production and resource chains. Download invircom v.5.50 full crack. Hearts of Iron IV might change that, with its cleverly streamlined factory operations and improved minor nations. More on that later this week.
First of all, I wanted to discuss the difficulty of playing the bad guys.
You don’t have to play as Hitler, of course. The other major nations offer all kinds of alternate history scenarios. It’s possible to prepare for the fight back unrealistically early as France, or to enter the war early (or not at all) as the good ol’ US of A. You could become the Soviet Union and attempt to engineer an Eastern Front that isn’t delineated with blood, or build an isolationist Britain that continues to appease and equivocate throughout the war.
You could even hop across the water to fiddle with geopolitics from a different angle, watching from a distance as Europe burns. Thanks to a proposed dynamic goal system, minor nations should be entertaining to play with and it won’t take long for some strategic smartarse to conquer the world as Brazil or Australia.
But sooner or later, you’ll play as Germany. You know you will, I know you will, and it’s ok. Granted, everytime you click through to your nation screen to alter government policy or build some Panzers, you’ll see Adolf Hitler’s face looking back at you. He’s the closest thing you have to a player avatar and that can feel uncomfortable. It’s not quite the same as playing as Darth Vader or Sephiroth (is there a spin-off where you play Sephiroth and discover that he’s all angsty and murdery because his girlfriend left him for a botanist? There must be), and to fight against the horror of it all, I’ve formulated a plan. Here’s how it goes.
Five Ways To Subvert Nazi Germany
(note: these are suggestions for play in the game Hearts of Iron and are most likely not feasible possibilities for real life historical rulers of Nazi Germany. If you are a real life historical ruler of Nazi Germany do not attempt to follow these instructions but please do take a good long look in the mirror and think about what you have done/are about to do)
The Iron Tortoise
The game begins as Germany is preparing to remilitarize the Rhineland, a process which is necessary for Eastern expansion and – both historically and via HOI IV’s goal system – leads to Anschluss and the annexation of the Sudetenland. In option one, Germany forgoes any kind of military build-up in the East, choosing to concentrate its forces elsewhere.
In this version of events, you’ll be looking to protect your borders rather than seeking to expand them. You’re not necessarily rejecting the idea of expansion outright, but you recognise that the age of European empires clashing by night has ended. To reaffirm your status in the current political climate, and with the horrific weapons of modern war, would lead to unimaginable carnage.
That said, if anyone starts amassing troops on YOUR border, you’re perfectly entitled to defend yourself. Be power condensed and contained, ready to react but willing to see peace play out.
Probable Result: Invaded by Poland in 1938.
The Trade Empire
Money makes the world go round while tanks just weigh it down. Violence creates too much friction to let the wheels spin, and you’ll look for something other than oil and blood to grease Germany’s fractured machinery. Would it be possible to convert Germany into a capitalist empire, dominating the manufacturing of civilian goods at the heart of Europe?
Maybe people would talk about your glorious Autobahn and the way your chum made the trains run on time, and then they’d go on to talk about that really cool and revolutionary series of Hi-Fi systems that you exported across the world.
Probable Result: Spend several years selling fancy cars to the Soviets only to discover that they’ve all been converted into war machines and Stalin is now in possession of the largest mechanised army in the world. Well done, Germany. Great job.
End Of Empires
There can never be another World War. The losses were appalling and the whole awful mess seemed to serve no end. As the leader of Germany, you understand this better than anyone and so you’ll make it your mission to break the European empires that survived. Think of your military as a force fighting for freedom, liberating colonies and applying political pressure on the imperialist bastards who are still behaving like the world never left the nineteenth century.
Maybe…just maybe…you’ll be able to bring Poland on board as a partner in your mission. Imagine forming an alliance with Vietnam in the forties and fighting a war of liberation on All Of The Fronts.
Probable Result: America conquers Europe in 1946.
The Peacekeepers
You’re going to remilitarize, whatever the rest of the world might say, but you’re not pursuing aggressive expansion. Far from it. German soldiers will be prepared to intervene wherever war erupts, taking the side of the oppressed. The Spanish Civil War could be a good early test case for this policy, although it’s entirely possible that the companies that would sit back while Austria and Poland fell will express outrage if you dare to intervene in affairs that are closer to their hearts.
It’s likely that attempting to do the right thing will be risky, particularly considering Germany’s relatively fragile state at the beginning of a campaign. You’ll need allies to ensure you don’t wind up defenceless when you inevitably provoke the wrath of the world’s bullies. Some form of cooperative countries perhaps. You could call them the United Nations.
Probable Result: Somehow find yourself invading the Soviety Union, for what seem like righteous reasons this time around. Freeze to death.
The Michael Young Experience
You have seen the grim future and know that the Nazi Party must be stopped. Play the game with the sole aim of destroying your own nation, with as little loss of life as possible. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain a steady economy so that people aren’t starving to death and avoid war so that people aren’t being shot to death. You’ll be a mild mannered Germany that doesn’t interfere, doesn’t meddle and certainly doesn’t invade anybody.
Forget everything you know about grand strategy and wargaming and try to work out the best way to destroy a government and topple an ideology without causing any bloodshed. Good luck.
Probable Result: Accidentally march on Paris in Autumn of 1937 because of a heavy night on the sauce.
Some pictures taken from Wolfenstein: The New Order, which presents just one of the possible results of timeline meddling.
This article was first published as part of, and thanks to, The RPS Supporter Program.
Twenty-player WWII insanity in Paradox’s most advanced strategy war game yet.
By T.J. Hafer“If there is to be another world war, it will be set off by some damn foolish thing in Finland.”
Such were my sentiments, echoing those of Bismarck himself preceding the First World War, as I sat down to take the helm of the United Kingdom in Hearts of Iron IV. I was variously opposed or supported by some 20-odd players as we plunged into the upcoming grand strategy affair’s multiplayer mode, which seeks to model the turbulent years leading up to and culminating in the Second World War.
Bolstered though I was in my Allied cause by the likes of Paradox EVP of Game Development Johan Andersson as the United States and YouTuber Martin “Quill18” Glaude as France, I couldn't help but recognize that our opponents were equally fearsome. At the head of the Axis was none other than fellow strategy fanatic Rob Zacny, looming behind the bustling factories of Germany. Any reasonable person would react to a statement like “Rob’s playing Germany” with an unjustified, day one declaration of pre-emptive war… but Hearts of Iron 4 doesn’t make it that simple.
The countdown to world war is guided by a mechanic called Tension, which begins at zero and raises as open hostilities are declared, territory is annexed, Sudeten lands are demanded, and no one agrees on whose turn it is to do the dishes. With the clock parked at zero, the allied players are largely powerless to commit to an offensive war, even being well aware of what might happen if Germany is left to do as it pleases. To initiate a conflict, you either have to spend political capital to guarantee the safety of a minor state in the Axis warpath, or wait for tension to rise enough that restrictions on declaring war are removed. Or you can wait for the Axis, who have no such restrictions, to declare war on you… but, again, that didn’t sound like a good plan.
Hoi4 German Civil War Events
Thus, we contented ourselves to wait and watch minor conflicts unfold in North Africa while developing infrastructure and planning for the defense of Europe from the eagle’s talons. The main resource in HoI4 is, confusingly at first, not money—but factories. Each factory gives you a certain output of Production, and everything (including the building of more factories) is limited only by how much production your nation possesses. The constant question of how much production to give to expanding your industry and how much to put into actually producing guns, tanks, and airplanes is a core element of the game’s economy. I had resolved to trust the Channel for defense and fill the skies of merry old England with smoke before I worried about filling them with fighters…
And, strangely, the Axis seemed to be doing the same. Time wore on into the late 1930s, well past the point that Hitler’s posturing had historically raised hackles, and Rob’s Germans hadn’t even done as much as annex Austria. Martin’s Frenchmen were contentedly building up the Maginot Line with max-level fortifications from Alsace to the sea. Johan, across the pond in America, informed me that he had a full run of B-17 bombers ready to rain down obliteration on Germany’s production line. As the US does not begin as a member of the allies, he would have to wait for a higher level of Tension before committing troops to the effort, but neutral countries can still gift equipment through a lend-lease option before all-out war engulfs the planet.
At last, when the Germans made one demand too many (on the heels of the aforementioned skirmish in Finland, which had served to raise Tension high enough to begin polarizing the world powers), I advised my French comrades to draw a line in the sand. War was declared and our armies were mobilized. I had spent most of my time in HoI4’s comprehensive tech tree on improving my industry and my elite infantry, several thousand of the latter I had already stationed in mainland France for this very eventuality. It seemed, unfortunately, that the conflict was not to be as desperate as its real-world counterpart.
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First, even though we, the Allies, had initiated war based on an ultimatum of our own devising, doing so had raised Tension to the point that the US was almost immediately able to join the war. Tension can only hurt the Axis, it seems, so it felt odd that the actions of the Allies could cause it to skyrocket. As further insult to injury, the Germans had failed to scramble their air forces to the correct sector (thanks in no small part to a barely navigable interface), allowing my Spitfires and my French ally’s aircraft to establish immediate air superiority over the Rhineland. This paved the way for US bombers to carpet all of Western Germany in flame, crippling the Axis production ability while my intrepid Tommys began a hammer offensive from Marseille into Axis Italy.
My infantry, supported by outdated tanks I hadn’t bothered to put too much research into, bogged down somewhere between Nice and Genoa, but it became clear that the war was almost a formality at this point. I lost Alexandria to an Italian counterattack due to a severe case of Forgetting/Neglecting to Care About North Africa, but the combined might of the US, France, and Britain in a coordinated offensive was just more than the German war machine could bear. Belgium changed hands several times, but not a single Panzer nor Wehrmacht boot made headway into a very well-defended Eastern France. It was all over before midnight rung in the year 1940.
Two further campaigns were played to similar results, and it seemed clear to all of us that the current build just made it too difficult to survive as the Axis. Even without the Soviet Union getting involved (in one game, they actually had a de facto alliance with the Germans), the current Tension system makes it far too easy for the entire free world to gang up on the poor fascists for even the slightest crimes against liberty. It’s a win for anyone who likes to see Hitler repeatedly kicked in the kidneys, but doesn’t make for a particularly entertaining video game war.
Encouragingly, my in-game American ally and real life Swede, Paradox’s Johan Andersson, has confirmed that the game is being pushed back, likely into 2016, to address these kinds of issues. As it stands, Hearts of Iron IV has the potential to be a hell of a lot of fun (especially in multiplayer), but seems less focused and polished than even some of the earlier builds of Europa Universalis IV I was able to peruse way back when. Extra dev time is definitely the prescription I’d write from my perch atop a gloriously, but perhaps too easily, conquered Rome. Once things are a little closer to ship shape, I’d gladly offer my fallen, fascist foes a sporting rematch.
Hoi4 Germany Civil War Timeline
T.J. Hafer is a contributor to IGN. Feel free to talk WWII strategy with him on Twitter at @AsaTJ.
There is a theory among some historians of the Second World War that, if only the Allies had declared war on Germany to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938, Nazism could have been defeated in a short European war.
After all, the Czech army was fully mobilised in 1938; three out of the nine panzer divisions that invaded the low countries in 1940 were to be equipped at the Skoda works in Pilsen; and revisionist historians now explain Germany's successful blitzkrieg operation before Dunkirk as the result of French blunders and defiant anarchistic gestures by German tank commanders, not genius.
So, over Christmas, I decided to test this out on the geekiest computer game known to man, Hearts of Iron III, in which you can play any nation (including if you so desire Panama) right the way through from 1936 to the outbreak of the Cold War, modelling not just fighting, not just production and research, but also diplomacy, intelligence and internal politics.
I elected to play as France and my strategy was to re-arm as quickly as possible, intervene on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, sign a defence pact not just with Poland but also the Czechs - and attack Germany through the Netherlands at the slightest provocation, probably sometime around 1938.
But it wouldn't let me.
My population's 'neutrality' was too high and the popularity of my ruling party, the Radicals, too low. So my tanks had to rev their engines in Toulouse, failing to speed to the aid of Barcelona; then they had to mass impotently while Germany re-occupied the Rhineland, then sit through the Anschluss, Munich and the annexation of the whole of Czechoslovakia, suffering a further indignity on the outbreak of hostilities in early 1939 because the Belgians refused my request for transit rights.
At first I thought this was a pretty unforgiveable glitch. But digging into the rules, hacks and kluges of HoI3, and real life history, the game is frighteningly accurate.
Firing up the 'Politics' interface I was at first amused to find my president, Albert Lebrun, classified as 'barking buffoon', prime minister Albert Sarraut as a 'happy amateur' and my intel boss as a 'dismal enigma' - but not amused to find that I could not change any of this before the scheduled election in 1940. My finger itched over the military coup button, and I immediately resorted to installing a far-right French police chief to quell dissent and abolish strikes.
But it was not ultimately the politics that defeated my cunning plan: it was the French people - and for that matter the Brits and Americans - and their 'neutrality'. My neutrality score remained stubbornly high - and in that the game is superbly realistic.
For it is a fact, easy to forget amid numerous onscreen portrayals of the 1930s set in aristocratic drawing rooms, that the majority of the people in democratic countries, for the majority of the time, were opposed to war in the 1930s. As Martin Gilbert wrote:
'At bottom, the old appeasement was a mood of hope, Victorian in its optimism, Burkean in its belief that societies evolved from bad to good and that progress could only be for the better. The new appeasement was a mood of fear, Hobbesian in its insistence upon swallowing the bad in order to preserve some remnant of the good, pessimistic in its belief that Nazism was there to stay and, however horrible it might be, should be accepted as a way of life with which Britain ought to deal.'
According to this view, the 'Guilty Men' so expertly excoriated in Michael Foot's 1940 pamphlet may indeed have been buffoons, and lied and blundered their way through numerous decision points, but at the end of the day there was no popular clamour for war - even in fact, as the French then found out to their cost, once it started.
And I'm finding out why: it goes badly.
After several false starts I have mastered the diplomacy system and got from 1936 to 1939 without bothering to save the Spanish Republic, Austria or Czechoslovakia. I have built an expanded Allies side including Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, and pushed the Swiss from neutrality to mobilisation.
Hoi4 Germany Civil War Museum
The Allies have become so fearsome that, despite massing its troops on the Polish border, Germany has hesitated to make the first move but then Finland - whose politics screen I have neglected to check up on but turn out to be dodgy - has attacked Germany in March 1939 and provoked the war. Meanwhile a lot of my tanks are still being built, apparently by guys taking a lot of Gauloises breaks.
Denmark has been rolled up in a few days, the Dutch and Belgian armies are refusing to make any moves that co-ordinate with mine and I am now pushed back to the French border with - as General Weygand put it to Churchill in real life - 'aucune' strategic reserve.
The Brits have had the decency to send an expeditionary force commanded by Lord Baird of Stonehaven: it consists of his Corps HQ and refuses to move from the not very useful position of Cherbourg. The Americans are having none of lend-lease and will not sell me so much as a jeep and the Soviet Union is wedded, as in reality, to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
It is me, in other words, who is the buffoon. The game is trying to tell me that if the Allies had adopted re-armament earlier, with all the military rhetoric and sentimental songs and propaganda films that would have gone with it, Russia may have cemented its alliance with Germany much earlier than in real life, and American neutrality - never fragile when it came to wars in Europe - may have been strengthened.
I draw several lessons from HoI3. First, as with all god-games, how merciless strategy is towards tactics, human beings and trivial situations. I've been is several slightly chaotic situations as a journalist and the lesson of this top-down, realtime history game is clear: you never know what's going on when it's going on.
The second is quite topical: if you want to take a democracy to war, unless your country is actually being attacked, you have to relentlessly shape the narrative. This holds true in other times and theatres than 1930s Europe.
Finally, the 1930s were a complex reality. I've studied the period a lot on and off over the years and I'm dissatisfied at the simplistic picture that's being created around it in recent TV dramas and movies, in which everybody is either fascist or anti-fascist, the war is always inevitable, and in which the focus is always the beleaguered aristocracy (King's Speech, Upstairs Downstairs) or the fascist-friendly elite (Coco Before Chanel). The drama of the time - from Odets' 'Awake and Sing' to Coward's soap-like 'This Happy Breed' - was always a lot more focused on real people and the real situation. Even a serial like Granada's 'Family at War' (1970-72), written as it was by people who actually remembered the time, captured the complexities in a way we now seem unable to. And so in a way, and despite its ludicrous title, does Hearts of Iron.
Sartre's trilogy Roads to Freedom (also if I remember rightly turned into a drama series in the 70s) begins with a scene of a French professor wracked with guilt over his failure and inability to go to Spain and participate in the war there. As I click and drag my hapless French divisions légère (all too légère mate, as it turns out), I think I suddenly understand that whole time and atmosphere a lot better.
So I think - if we are now tweaking the school curriculum slightly back in the direction of battles and leaders - it might be worth giving a group of sixth formers a go at doing this as a project. It would certainly add the their understanding of the historical origins of 'kettling'.