[2023] Hearts of Iron IV Player Resources

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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.



Hearts of Iron IV Wiki: https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Hearts_of_Iron_4_Wiki
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Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/hoi4
Our Discord contains a dedicated Helper team!

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As the player is learning Hearts of Iron IV, remember these important steps as one formulates their plans for world domination!

Spoiler: Tips to getting started

• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• Don't forget to rest armies after they have reached their objectives. A few days of inaction will help with organization, reinforcement and supply.

Spoiler: Advanced Tips

• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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.
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• 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!

Hearts of Iron 4 Complete Beginner's Guide Featuring HammoTimee

Base Game (Old) | TutorialsㅤㅤㅤㅤBy Blood Alone | Tutorials

No Step Back | TutorialsㅤㅤㅤㅤLa Résistance | Tutorials

Man the Guns | Tutorialsㅤ

Peace Conferences
By Bitt3rSteel
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Basic Modding LessonsㅤㅤㅤAdvanced Modding Lessons
By the Iron WorkshopㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBy the Iron Workshop



Template Collection ㅤㅤUltimate Template Guide
By MrNostalgicㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBy Vezachs

Navy for Beginners ㅤㅤㅤㅤUltimate Navy Guide
By MrNostalgic ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBy Vezachs

Modding Guide



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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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magispitt said: Are doctrines still researched? I thought they were acquired through spending experience

Hello! Thank you for catching that, it has now been edited in the document.  

Dead One's Blood said: 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. ^^  

Northstar1989 said: Which, if any, of these are controlled/moderated by actual Paradox staff/volunteers?

(This is sticky'd thread, so I assume it is appropriate to reply to it despite its age. If not, where should I ask this?)

We control all platforms except Reddit.  

Northstar1989 said: Thanks for the quick answer!!

That's a relief.

I'd found the Reddit community to be increasingly toxic, but never observed that with these forums: which seem very well moderated. I was wondering if I should try some of the other resources, or if they would be like Reddit.

You should be able to send in a ticket to the Reddit moderators if you see something!