I didn’t go hands-on with it or see too much, but early in development it looked good and seemed conceptually sound. You draw out your strategy and set everything in motion at once, rather than stabbing at individual units, though you could do that if you want. You can control your units in a simple fell swoop with the battle plan feature that lets you draw arrows to orient your units and then hit execute to have them follow the plan.ĭid you ever watch the history channel before it got consumed by the reality TV bug? Remember all the maps with wavy arrows indicating movement? It’s that, basically. Zoomed all the way into your country, you’ll find it broken down in provinces, upon which you can place a unit (strategically, you’ll want infantry in forests, tanks in flat lands, and so on). The neatest addition to Hearts of Iron IV has to be the battle plan system. That’s up there with getting involved in a land war in Asia. And what sort of idiot would attack Russia in the winter? You’ll be able to easily see that those cumbersome mountains that would make your invasion a challenge are now covered in nearly impassable snowfall.

The seasons also play an important part in deciding strategy, and they’re represented on the map at more zoomed in levels. This is represented as a cool, large amplitude oscillation on the map (because timezones mean it is day or night in various parts of the world simultaneously). Plus, an important part of the game is its day and night cycle for example, you don’t want to be deploying your stealth bombers in the day time where they can be spotted like dalmatians. I’m no cartographile, but seeing eye-popping HD maps that put those of my childhood classrooms to shame is kind of neat. The first thing that caught my eye in Hearts of Iron IV was the terribly pretty map. You can alter the course of history or try to repeat history with a major power, or just try to sustain yourself - and maybe even have some greater effect - with a smaller power. While the bulk of World War II dealings are centralized in Europe, Hearts of Iron allows you take control of any country from the period, from Venezuela to Germany. If you were interested in Crusader Kings II or Europa, but felt overwhelmed or bored by some of the headier mechanics, this may be the grand strategy game for you.

The Hearts of Iron series focuses on the World War II period of world history and has a much more concentrated focus on combat than other Paradox strategy games. Following up on the continuing recent success of Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, Paradox is revisiting another beloved grand strategy series, Hearts of Iron, with the recently announced Hearts of Iron IV.

Hearts of iron 4 playable nations