Hearts of Iron IV: Basic Guide for Beginners

In this video, Peter Steele provides a basic guide for beginners on how to play Hearts of Iron IV. He recommends starting with the 1936 scenario and choosing Germany as your first country. He also explains the different difficulty levels and game rules.

Choosing Your Country

• Choose the 1936 scenario and select a major power or a country with its own specific focus tree.

• Peter recommends choosing Germany as your first country because it is powerful and sets the pace for World War II.

• Stick with regular difficulty level to learn the game on the difficulty that it is meant to be played at.

Game Settings

• Avoid custom game rules until you're more comfortable with the game.

• Ironman mode locks you into a single save game for your entire playthrough, but it's not recommended for beginners.

• Turn on historical AI focuses to follow natural historical path towards World War II.

Overview of New Game Screen

• The political tab shows your country leader and their role in your country.

• The national focus tree is where you can choose what direction your country takes.

Conclusion

Peter Steele provides an overview of how to start playing Hearts of Iron IV as a beginner. He recommends starting with Germany in the 1936 scenario, sticking with regular difficulty level, turning on historical AI focuses, and avoiding custom game rules until you're more comfortable with the game.

Understanding Focus Trees in Hearts of Iron IV

This section explains how focus trees work in the game and how they can impact the historical path of a country.

How Focus Trees Work

• Trees are broken up into separate parts, such as industry, military, and political.

• There are many guides available online that dictate what is the best path to choose for your first couple of games.

• Germany has several options for its focus tree, including improving industry, building forts along the French border, or demanding Czechoslovakia surrender German-speaking territory.

• The focus trees set the historical path for a country as it progresses towards World War II.

• Some focus trees offer alternative history options.

Political Situation and Laws in Hearts of Iron IV

This section covers the political situation in a country and how laws can impact gameplay.

Political Situation

• A pie chart shows how divided a nation is between fascist, democratic, communist, and non-aligned parties.

• Political power is a resource gained on a daily basis that is spent on advisors, laws, decisions, and focuses.

Laws

• Various laws affect conscription for manpower, trade for imports/exports, economy for war effort dedication.

• Political cabinet advisors alter countries with bonuses.

Researching and Producing Equipment in Hearts of Iron IV

This section explains how research and production work in the game.

Design Companies

• Design companies give effects to equipment and slight bonuses to researching that equipment.

Military Staff

• Chiefs of the army, navy, and air force provide bonuses to their respective branches.

• The military high command provides advisors that improve unit effectiveness and give buffs to certain types of units.

Political and Stability Overview

This section covers the political tree, decisions that can affect the political situation of a country, and how to influence stability and war support.

Political Tree

• Decisions in the political tree can be used to promote or ban certain factions to counteract foreign powers' influence on politics.

• The political makeup of a country can be changed through decisions in this tree.

Stability

• Stability affects industry output, with higher stability resulting in higher output.

• A good rule of thumb is to keep stability above 50%, as falling below this incurs negative modifiers.

• Falling below 50% while at war results in negative events such as strikes that cripple industry.

• Fighting an offensive war reduces stability by 20 or 30 points, while being the defender boosts war support.

War Support

• War support influences the rate at which more men mobilize for recruitment and affects a country's willingness to give up if losing a war.

• Like stability, it should be kept above 50% to avoid negative modifiers.

• Falling below 50% while at war results in negative events such as troops deserting.

Research Overview

This section covers research slots available for different countries and tabs available for research.

Research Slots

• Major powers start with four research slots, minor powers start with three, and some small countries start with two slots.

Tabs Available for Research

Infantry Tab

• Basic equipment for infantry from rifles to field equipment like mortars etc.

Mobile Infantry Tab

• Used for various different divisions mostly motorized and quick divisions.

Special Forces Tab

• Can be ignored by new players since they are not essential.

Armor Tab

• Contains tanks ranging from light tanks to heavy tanks.

Artillery Tab

• Contains artillery ranging from basic artillery to rocket artillery.

Land Doctrine Tab

• Contains doctrines that affect land combat.

Air Doctrine Tab

• Contains doctrines that affect air combat.

Naval Doctrine Tab

• Contains doctrines that affect naval combat.

Conclusion

This section concludes the video by summarizing the basics of political and stability overview, research overview, and tabs available for research.

• Political tree decisions can be used to promote or ban certain factions to counteract foreign powers' influence on politics.

• Stability affects industry output, while war support influences the rate at which more men mobilize for recruitment and a country's willingness to give up if losing a war.

• Major powers start with four research slots, minor powers start with three, and some small countries start with two slots.

• Tabs available for research include infantry, mobile infantry, special forces, armor, artillery, land doctrine, air doctrine, and naval doctrine.

Overview of Land Combat

This section provides an overview of the different types of units and upgrades available in land combat.

Infantry and Trucks

• Infantry is the basic unit for land combat.

• Trucks are used to transport infantry and supplies.

Support Companies

• Support companies provide additional support to regular divisions.

• Engineers allow troops to dig in and give bonuses when fighting in certain terrain.

• Recon companies provide reconnaissance stats for your divisions.

• Military police help occupy conquered land, while maintenance companies help keep trucks from breaking down.

Upgrades

• Field hospitals allow some casualties to recover and rejoin the fight, reducing experience loss.

• Logistics companies reduce fuel and supply usage for divisions, useful in areas with poor infrastructure.

• Signal companies improve communication between units, allowing for quicker reinforcement.

Armor

• Light tanks are fast but have little armor, while heavy tanks are slower but have more armor.

• Medium tanks are a good middle ground between light and heavy tanks.

#s Fuel Management

This section covers fuel management in land combat.

Fuel Usage

• Fuel is used by all motorized units, including trucks and armored vehicles.

• Armored vehicles use more fuel than other units.

Fuel Production

• Oil refineries produce fuel that can be used by your army.

• Capturing oil fields and refineries can increase your fuel production.

Fuel Conservation

• Using logistics companies can reduce fuel usage.

• Avoiding unnecessary movement and battles can also conserve fuel.

#s Conclusion

This section provides a brief summary of the key points covered in the video.

• Infantry, trucks, support companies, upgrades, and armor are all important aspects of land combat.

• Fuel management is crucial for success in land combat.

Tank and Artillery Production

This section covers the different types of tanks and artillery available in the game, as well as recommendations for production.

Types of Tanks

• Modern Main Battle Tank: The best version of the tank available, but expensive and only available towards the end of the game.

• Super Heavy Tank: Extremely slow and even more expensive than regular heavy tanks. Not recommended.

• Light or Medium Tanks: Recommended for new players to start with before experimenting with heavier tanks.

Artillery Production

• Anti-Tank and Rocket Artillery: Not recommended for new players as they needlessly complicate things. Anti-tank is never required to defeat AI.

• Anti-Air and Artillery: Recommended to keep up-to-date. Artillery is good for hitting infantry hard while anti-air can also be used to shoot down airplanes or tanks if pointed downwards.

Land Doctrines

This section covers land doctrines, which are overall strategies for military high command.

Mobile Warfare

• Recommended for countries heavily specialized towards tanks like Germany. Makes units faster, buffs tanks and infantry.

Superior Firepower

• Recommended all-round doctrine that boosts infantry and artillery. Good choice for most nations that don't have big buffs to mobile warfare or don't want to use tanks all the time.

Grand Battle Plan & Mass Assault

• Grand Battle Plan: World War I-style fighting with trenches. Niche uses such as early researches giving extra entrenchment.

• Mass Assault: Throwing wave after wave of men at the enemy. Generally not recommended for new players.

Naval Doctrines

This section covers naval doctrines and research.

• Research boats, better boats, and best boats as well as transports for invading enemies across the sea.

• Naval doctrines specialize in various areas such as trade interdiction.

Understanding Air and Engineering in Hearts of Iron IV

This section covers the air and engineering aspects of Hearts of Iron IV. It explains how to research airplanes, the different types of airplanes, their uses, and how to choose air doctrines. It also covers the importance of electronic engineering and mechanical computing in the game.

Researching Airplanes

• Airplanes can be researched under the "Air" tab.

• The split is short-range on the left and long-range on the right.

• Short-range includes fighters, close air support, and naval bombers.

• Long-range includes heavy fighters, tactical bombers, and strategic bombers.

Types of Airplanes

Fighters

• Fighters give you control of the skies by shooting down enemy fighters and bombers.

• They are always useful for protecting your homeland.

Close Air Support

• Interferes in land combat by attacking enemy divisions with dive bombs.

• Can do a lot of damage to an enemy that does not have anti-air guns or fighter protection.

Naval Bombers

• Sinks enemy ships.

Heavy Fighters

• A long-range version of fighters that are expensive to produce. Regular fighters are more cost-effective early on.

Tactical Bombers

• Can do everything that all other airplanes can do.

Strategic Bombers

• Do carpet bombing of enemy industry.

Choosing Air Doctrines

There are three types:

1. Strategic Destruction - buffs strategic bombers

2. Battlefield Support - favors close air support

3. Operational Integrity - favors tactical bombers

Engineering Tab

The engineering tab is split into two major parts: Atomic Research and Experimental Rockets, and Electronic Engineering.

Atomic Research and Experimental Rockets

• Late-game stuff that is not necessary to win the game.

• Impact is minimal.

Electronic Engineering

• Unlocks radios and various types of radar.

• Units with radio are better at coordinating their actions.

• Radar is situational and has limited use.

Mechanical Computing

• Boosts research speed.

• Very important for researching everything else quicker.

Industry

The industry tab is split into four major parts: Production, Basic Industry, Construction, and Synthetic Oils.

Production

• Adds production efficiency cap.

• Keep it up to date to have the most modern version of this research.

Basic Industry

• Keep it up to date as it's very important to always have the most modern version of this research.

Concentrated vs Dispersed Industry

• Choose whichever you prefer as there isn't much difference between them in single-player mode.

Construction

• Each tier allows you to build things quicker.

Synthetic Oil Experiments

This section discusses the importance of synthetic oil experiments in the game and how it allows countries to produce their own fuel.

Fuel Refining

• Fuel refining allows for more efficient production of fuel from oil.

• The higher your fuel refining, the more fuel you get for each point of oil.

• Refineries allow countries without access to natural oil supplies to produce their own oil and fuel.

Importance of Synthetic Oil Experiments

• Synthetic oil experiments are important for countries like Germany that don't have access to large oil supplies.

• As wars drag on, trading with other countries becomes difficult and not everyone is willing to give away their own fuel and oil.

• Improving refineries can also result in producing rubber as a byproduct, which is useful for building trucks and airplanes.

Researching Technology

This section covers how to start researching technology in the game.

Starting Research

• Start by focusing on industry and engineering first.

• Research basic machine tools, construction, and electronic engineering first.

• Once those finish, move on to the rest of the tree until you hit "technology is ahead of time."

• Keep industry and engineering up-to-date before moving on to infantry equipment or armor research.

Diplomacy

This section covers diplomacy in the game.

Interacting with Other Countries

• Right-clicking on another country shows possible interactions with that country.

• Most interactions cost political power.

• Information about a country's national spirits, relationships with other countries, and current focus can be seen if intel is high enough.

Justifying War Goals

• War goals must be justified before declaring war.

• Other interactions include guaranteeing independence, offering military access, signing pacts of non-aggression, and inviting each other to a faction.

Introduction to Game Mechanics

This section covers the basics of Hearts of Iron IV game mechanics, including coups, party popularity, and details about other countries.

Coups and Party Popularity

• Coups combined with boosting party popularity can lead to hilarious results.

• Experimenting with this is fun but not vital.

• Boosting party popularity can be put aside until you're more comfortable with the game.

Details About Other Countries

• The details tell you a lot about another country.

• For instance, we can see what laws they're currently on.

• This is a good indication of just how desperate the fighting has become for them.

• We can also see how many divisions the enemy is feeling (a rough estimate).

• The higher your intel, the more you know about a country.

Intel and Trade

This section covers intel and trade in Hearts of Iron IV.

Intel

• Knowing information is key if you're going to fight any war effectively.

• You need to know how many divisions an enemy has, their military factories, dockyards, civilian factories, airplanes they have and how much manpower they have in reserve.

• The higher your intel level on a country, the more information you will have.

Trade

• Resources are needed to produce equipment that may not be available within your own territory meaning imports are necessary.

• Exports work at a ratio of one civilian factory for eight resources.

• Everything here is colored depending on the situation: green means great; red means we need some stuff please import; yellow means we have everything we need and we're still importing more so why?

Understanding Trade

This section provides an overview of trade in Hearts of Iron IV.

Why Trade?

• We need resources to produce equipment.

• Chances are you will not have access to every resource required and even if you do, you'll probably not have enough within your own territory.

The Color System

• A green number means we have all the resources we need.

• A red number means we need some stuff please import.

• A yellow number means we have everything we need and we're still importing more so why?

Fixing the Yellow Number

• Click on the resource that is yellow.

• Find a country you're trading with (in this case Sweden) and stop the trade by either using the slider or by clicking a button that will automatically set the exact amount of factories needed to be trading for in this case that's zero.

Practical Example of Trade

This section provides a practical example of how trade works in Hearts of Iron IV.

Rubber Resource

• Click on the rubber resource.

• That gives us a list of countries we can trade with ranked from those who have the most available to the lowest number.

• Say we want some rubber because we need some right?

• Let's click on Dutch East Indies in the list, and here you can see we will give them one civilian factory and in exchange, we will buy eight rubber (this is the normal ratio).

Convoys and Construction

This section covers convoys and construction in Hearts of Iron IV.

Convoys

• If trade cannot be done entirely by land, then convoys are necessary.

• For instance, Dutch East Indies where they're a bunch of islands here so it's not possible to get a land route there.

Construction

• Infrastructure increases:

• The rate at which units can move through a province.

• The rate at which you can build in that province.

• The base fuel capacity of the state.

Building Infrastructure and Factories

This section covers the different types of buildings that can be constructed in the game, including military and civilian factories, radar stations, naval dockyards, synthetic refineries, fuel silos, rocket sights, nuclear reactors, landforts and coastal forts. The section also provides guidance on how to prioritize building construction.

Types of Buildings

• Military factories produce equipment such as guns, tanks and trucks.

• Civilian factories are used for building factories and trading for resources.

• Naval dockyards build ships.

• Synthetic refineries produce oil for nations without access to it.

• Fuel silos increase the amount of fuel a country can hold onto.

• Rocket sights have limited use cases.

• Nuclear reactors start producing nuclear weapons late game.

• Landforts give a defensive bonus in land combat while coastal forts give a defensive bonus if attacked from the sea.

Prioritizing Building Construction

• Consider your current mobilization law when deciding what to build first.

• If you're stuck on civilian economy with no plans to change soon:

• Build infrastructure in regions with resources or your capital region to improve supply.

• Afterward, start building some civilian or military factories depending on what is needed.

• Prioritize building in provinces with higher infrastructure since they will be built faster.

• Start building military factories about a year before World War II starts.

• Build synthetic refineries if using a lot of oil like Germany does.

Construction Process

This section covers the technical process of building construction in the game.

Building Construction

• Select the building you want to construct and choose the state in which to build it.

• Prioritize building in provinces with higher infrastructure since they will be built faster.

• A maximum of 15 civilian factories can work on one project at a time, but more factories mean more queues running alongside each other, speeding up construction.

Production Overview

This section covers the production aspect of Hearts of Iron 4. It explains how to produce equipment and assign factories to them.

Equipment Production

• To produce equipment, select the equipment you want to make and assign a set of factories to it.

• The amount of everything you need to make will depend on your strategy and the type of unit you're using.

• You will always be making infantry equipment for your infantry, support equipment for your support companies, towed artillery because it's good, tanks (lights, mediums or heavies), motorized equipment for a variety of reasons and aircraft (fighters and close air support).

• Tactical bombers are useful but niche. Don't worry too much about navy in your first couple of playthroughs.

Factory Management

• The more factories assigned to things, the less overview you'll have. Use x5 or x10 grouping options to make it easier on the eyes.

• Efficiency is set at a maximum of 50% give or take and is influenced by technology and certain national spirits.

• Freshly assigned factories start with poor production efficiency which improves as they work towards peak efficiency.

• There will always be a ramp-up time required to work at peak efficiency so strategic planning is important.

• Plan ahead what is my overall goal? How am I going to achieve it? What am I going to need?

• For a basic Germany game, start with producing some airplanes (fighters and close air support), some motorized units, one factory building light tanks, and a variety of equipment for infantry and other divisions. Adapt as the game progresses.

Managing Units and Recruitment

This section covers how to manage units, prioritize equipment, and recruit new divisions.

Upgrading Existing Units and Prioritizing Equipment

• Upgrading existing units is important for special operations.

• Disregard this if you do not have the La Resistance DLC.

• Prioritize equipment to garrisons when recruiting units.

Recruiting New Divisions

• Queue up a few infantry divisions (10 or so) and leave them running an infinite number.

• Set priority for reinforcements and garrisons as high, upgrades as medium, and fresh recruits as medium unless needed urgently.

• Choose where these units are deployed. It's recommended to park them outside your capital or near the border during war.

Filling Equipment and Training Bars

• When recruiting units, two bars will slowly fill up: the left bar shows the amount of equipment required while the right bar shows the amount of training a unit has had.

• The left bar needs to be full before deployment.

• Rushing a unit by clicking on an arrow once it reaches 20% of its training level will make it deploy faster but less trained.

Assigning Generals and Organizing Armies

• Click on unassigned divisions button to assign them to a general. Shift + left-click selects all unassigned units.

• Double-click on an infantry division to select all identical ones. Right-click on another army's portrait to move all selected divisions there.

• Use battle plans and AI orders instead of manually making them go places by right-clicking different provinces. Draw front lines with regular old front line or custom length order.

Fallback Line and Army Management

This section covers the fallback line and army management.

Fallback Line

• The fallback line is an order that can be used instead of a frontline order.

• It cannot be used to attack from automatically.

• To set a fallback line, hit the button and right-click and drag to set it.

Division Templates

• Division design is a complicated subject, but there are templates available for single player mode.

• For infantry, use 10 infantry battalions with support anti-air, support artillery, and engineer companies.

• Combat width is the most important stat in combat. Use multiples of 10 (10, 20, or 40).

• For reserve divisions not expected to do much fighting, use 10 combat width.

• For defensive divisions just there to take hits and defend the front, use 20 combat width.

• For divisions designed purely to attack, use 40 combat width.

Offensive Tank Template

• A good goal to strive for is a template with 40 combat width with 13 tanks and 7 trucks.

• This requires quite a bit of army experience to create the template.

Logistics and Manpower

This section covers logistics and manpower.

Logistics

• The logistics screen shows how much equipment you have in stock or how big your deficit is.

• Check this screen if you have any problems in terms of logistics.

Manpower

• Manpower is how many available recruits there are that can be drafted into the army.

• Increase this by conquering more core territory or by living steeper conscription laws.

• Be aware that these come at a price; never run out of manpower without fresh manpower as units will slowly start to die.

Fuel and Convoys

• Fuel is used by the army, air force, and navy.

• Without fuel, mechanized or motorized units will not operate at peak capacity.

• Always make sure you have enough fuel in reserve or are importing or producing enough oil that can be turned into fuel.

• Convoys are used for trade across water and supplying your territories across water that are not connected via land connection.

• The enemy will sink these when you're at war so always make sure to have enough of them.

Exercising Units and Army Experience

This section explains how to exercise units and the importance of army experience.

Exercising Units

• To exercise units, select your army and click on the "exercise" button.

• Exercising costs equipment via attrition, so don't overdo it.

• Army experience is used primarily to change division templates or improve certain types of equipment like tanks.

• Navy and air experience are obtained similarly through combat or exercising, and are used to speed up researches or improve planes respectively.

Assigning Commanders

This section explains how to assign commanders to armies.

Choosing a Commander

• Click on an army you wish to give a commander to, then click "assign".

• Each commander has certain traits that affect their performance. Choose one with traits that match your needs.

• Generals have stats for attack, defense, planning, and supply consumption. Choose the best general available for each army.

Offensive Lines

This section explains how offensive lines work in Hearts of Iron 4.

Setting Up an Offensive Line

• Offensive lines are set up by clicking the button and drawing an arrow in enemy territory.

• The level of aggression can be determined by arrows that can either be very careful, aggressive, or balanced.

• Balanced is generally the best option. Aggressive can be costly and lead to gaps in your line.

The transcript continues with further explanations of game mechanics and strategies.

Unit Planning and Orders

This section covers the different types of orders that can be given to units in the game, including planning, entrenchment, naval invasions, paratroop orders, fallback lines, and area defense orders.

Planning and Entrenchment

• Planning is a bar that fills up until the unit moves or until an order is given to execute an attack. It drains slowly during an attack.

• Entrenchment is a defensive version of planning that increases defensiveness but is removed when a unit moves.

Naval Invasions

• Naval invasions require technology from the naval tree under transports. Each tech unlocked allows for more units to be assigned as naval invasions.

• To launch a naval invasion order, select it and choose a destination port. Units will try to invade that port using convoys.

• Landing next to the port before attacking it can help avoid enemy defenses. Launching multiple smaller invasions simultaneously can also speed up preparation time.

Paratroop Orders

• Paratroop orders are powerful but risky and require experience with basic combat first.

Fallback Lines and Area Defense Orders

• Fallback lines keep units in place while area defense orders garrison specific provinces. Be careful when using area defense as it wipes away other orders.

Basic Army Command

This section covers the basics of army command in Hearts of Iron IV.

General and Division Management

• The main use of this feature is to guard naval bases. In single player, the AI will move its divisions onto those naval bases and defend them.

• A general can handle 24 divisions unless he has a special trait. If he is working in an area defense order, he can command 72 divisions.

• An army group is to generals what a general is to a division. It's just a way of grouping several armies under someone else's banner.

Field Marshal Command

• Field marshals provide bonuses to everyone under their command. They can execute the same orders that a general can.

• To assign units to the same front line, hold shift while you click and the field marshal will distribute them all along the front.

• Fresh field marshals can be obtained by promoting generals with command power.

Air Force Command

This section covers how to select and organize your air force in Hearts of Iron IV.

Selecting Your Air Force

• You can either go to the air overview and individually select air wings or go to the air map and drag a box over everything.

• Deleting all planes deployed at the start of the game makes it easier to organize your air force.

Organizing Your Air Force

• Find an airfield close to the front line or where you know it will be, then add new air wings there by selecting the airfield and hitting the plus button.

• Air wings should be limited to 100 airplanes. To create an air wing of 100 planes, shift-click the button to move 100 airplanes.

• Air wings will use the most up-to-date equipment available to them. If you put out 100 biplanes and then start making bf-109s, every time a bf-109 is made available they will retire one of the old airplanes and put that new plane into commission.

Air and Naval Combat

This section covers how to manage air and naval combat in the game.

Managing Air Combat

• Set your fighters to air superiority unless you need them to defend your industrial heartland, then set them to interception.

• Right-click on the air zone you want your fighters to fight over. You will see a big arrow and an icon showing how many fighters are active on that mission.

• Close air support can be used for land combat, naval strike is for attacking enemy navies over sea tiles, and port strike is executed over a coastline with a port. Limit close air support use.

• Train pilots by shift-clicking the training button until they reach level three. Avoid attrition as planes are expensive.

• Assign airplanes to support specific armies for easy air support during combat.

Managing Naval Combat

• Divide ships into navies with admirals based on their skills. Divide each navy into task forces for easy management across multiple sea zones.

• Split off units from task forces or merge them together using buttons provided.

• Keep submarines separate from surface ships and keep all surface ships bunched up in one big navy. Exploit AI's weakness in using its navy.

• Give orders to ships such as convoy rating or convoy escort depending on the mission assigned.

The transcript does not provide any additional information beyond what is summarized above.

Naval Strategy Overview

This section provides an overview of naval strategy in the game.

Types of Ships and Their Roles

• A combination of patrol and strike force is usually best, where big dreadnoughts sit at port and smaller destroyers with radar and good vision patrol the area.

• The naval invasion support order means the entire navy will sit at port and escort naval invasions through marked sea tiles.

Naval Supremacy

• Naval supremacy is important for launching successful naval invasions.

• Supremacy is calculated by a certain mix of the quality and amount of your ships compared to those of your enemy.

• Whoever has the highest supremacy gets to launch naval invasions and move through the sea zone with land units on that specific invasion mission.

• You can see your level of naval supremacy by mousing over any tile that you have ships in or that you don't have ships in.

Tips for Achieving Naval Supremacy

• To achieve naval supremacy, bunch up your entire navy, get every ship you have, and put them on the naval invasion support order.

• Wait until the enemy moves their navy away if theirs is more powerful or get your naval invasion out the door with your navy ready to protect it if yours happens to be stronger.

Conclusion

This section concludes the tutorial video.

• The tutorial aims to help new players successfully play their first campaign.

• It's a great game even though it sometimes gets hate.

• If you liked the video, leave a like and consider subscribing to the channel.

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