Hoi4 beginners guide

This guide is intended as a beginner's tour of the game.

Preparing to Play HOI4: Understanding the Launcher

Before diving into the action, you should get familiar with what you see on your screen before hitting that "Play" button. Here's a rundown of what you'll find in the launcher:

1. Game Version and Checksum: This tells you the current version of the game. It's important because your saved games only work with the matching version.
   
   
2. Video Display Settings: Clicking the gear icon opens up settings for display mode, resolution, and refresh rate. Fullscreen is generally recommended for smoother gameplay.
   
   
3. Clear User Directory: Use this if you're experiencing crashes, but be cautious—it wipes your HOI4 user directory.
   
   
4. Game Play: This button starts your epic journey into the game after you've set up your preferences.
   
   
5. Create Account: Sign up for a Paradox Interactive account—it's handy for tech support and accessing various game branches.
   
   
6. DLC Tab: Shows purchased content. Click to select which ones you want to include in your game.
   
   
7. Mods Tab: Reveals installed mods. You can pick and choose which mods you'd like to activate for your game.

Video Settings

Click the gear icon to tweak your video settings. Fullscreen mode is usually the way to go to avoid potential launch problems. Match your resolution with your monitor's native resolution for the best experience. Also, try to set the refresh rate to match your monitor.

Troubleshooting Tips

If you encounter issues like the game failing to start, freezing, crashing, or black screens, here are some solutions to try:

• Anti-virus Blocks Files: Add 'hoi4.exe' and 'steam.exe' to your anti-virus exception list.
  
• Update Graphics Card Drivers: Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date.
  
• OS Compatibility Settings: Experiment with Windows compatibility settings for 'hoi4.exe'.
  
• Incompatible Graphics Card Settings: Try running the game in Fullscreen mode.
  
• Editing Settings.txt: Manually edit settings.txt to set 'fullScreen=yes' and 'borderless=no'.
  
• Corrupted User Files: Clear your user directory to fix corrupted files.
  
• Reinstall the Game: Try a clean reinstall by uninstalling and deleting game folders before reinstalling.

These steps should help to resolve common issues encountered while playing Hearts of Iron IV.

Starting with Hoi4

Single Player Adventures
The Single Player mode in Hearts of Iron IV is where you go solo, with the computer controlling all other countries. Here, you can jump into the Tutorial for a quick rundown or start a new game. Plus, you can load a previously saved game to continue your epic campaign.

Tip: Don't skip the Tutorial—it's a great way to get familiar with the game mechanics. After finishing it, you can carry on like a pro in your regular playthrough.

Multiplayer Madness
Get ready for some online action! In Multiplayer mode, up to 32 players can join in for a competitive or cooperative game. The host has the power to start a fresh game or load a previous session for everyone to continue where they left off.

Customizing Your Experience
In the Options menu, you can tweak various settings like sound, visuals, and gameplay details. This is where you can adjust your monitor resolution and set your preferences for graphics and sound. The "game settings" tab is crucial here—it holds some important options.

Picking Your Starting Point: The 1936 Scenario
Start your journey from the year 1936 on January 1st. This scenario is perfect for crafting alternate versions of World War II as it begins with fewer alliances or wars. Here, you'll focus on building your economy and preparing for war. It's all about production, research, and diplomacy initially.

Choosing Your Nation
In each scenario, you'll find the seven major powers alongside countries unlocked by DLC updates. Pick any nation you want, but keep in mind that some countries might not be the best for a first playthrough. Go for a nation you're familiar with or one that seems like the most fun to you!

Game Settings and Difficulty
Before diving in, take a glance at the game settings in the lower right corner of the world map. Here, you can toggle ironman and historical focus on or off, adjust difficulty settings, and even boost the power of certain important nations. You'll also find info on Steam achievements and their requirements.

Difficulty Settings Explained
Players have the freedom to set a general difficulty level that applies modifiers to themselves and/or the AI globally. Additionally, you can tweak modifiers for the seven major countries, affecting their strength and impact in the game.

This section breaks down the starting options, scenario choices, nation selection, and key settings players should be aware of when beginning their Hearts of Iron IV experience.

User Interface & Main Elements

Getting Familiar with the Interface

If you're a veteran of Paradox strategy games, the user interface of Hearts of Iron IV will feel like home. Here's what you'll notice:

• Left Side: Manage critical national affairs.
  
• Alert Tabs: Four tabs at the top signal crucial issues needing your attention.
  
• Right Side: Displays troop information.
  
• Top Information Bar: Offers essential game and world status updates.

Top Information Bar Overview

Political Power: Spend on national focus ideas, appoint ministers, make decisions, change laws, and execute diplomatic actions.

Stability: Measure of public support for the government. Low stability impacts productivity and increases resistance in occupied territories.

War Support: Reflects public backing for war efforts. Influences mobilization, Command Power gain, and core territory defense and attack.

Manpower: Number of available men for military units, influenced by control over territories, conscription laws, and national spirits.

Factories: Military, naval, and civilian factories for production.

Fuel: Generated by excess oil and used for various operations, influenced by oil availability and economy laws.

Logistics Fulfillment: Indicates satisfaction with supply lines, impacting unit supply and potential penalties.

Convoys: Number of available transports for trade and unit transport across oceans.

Command Power: Ability to influence the military, used for operations and promoting generals.

Experience: Gained by units and used for modifying divisions, equipment, and ships.

Nuclear Weapons: Displays available nuclear bombs when researched.

World Tension: Indicates the world's proximity to war, affecting diplomatic and military actions.

Map Modes: Understanding Different Views

• Land Map Mode: Shows nations, states, and provinces for diplomacy and construction.
  
• Naval Map Mode: Focuses on sea regions, crucial for naval fleet orders.
  
• Air Map Mode: Overlays land and sea maps, aids in air wing missions.
  
• Supply Map Mode: Reflects supply status, indicating good or bad conditions in regions.

Main Menu Bar: Direct Access to Key Menus

• Government, Decisions, Intelligence Agency, Research, International Market, Trade, Construction, Production, Recruit & Deploy, Officer Corps

National Information & Development

• Political Screen: Manage national status, ideologies, and government officials.
  
• Laws & Government: Adjust conscription, trade, and economy laws, hire advisors, and enact laws using political power.

Research & Production

• Research: Discover technologies across eight categories, influencing research time and unlocking units.
  
• Production: Assign factories for equipment, vehicles, aircraft, and ships, impacting production efficiency and national stockpile.

Diplomacy, Trade, Constructions

• Diplomacy: Interact with nations, filter by region, ideology, or faction, and perform diplomatic actions.
  
• Trade: Exchange major resources, manage trading partners, and ensure the necessary resources for production.
  Constructions: Utilize civilian factories to build structures and improvements across states.

Recruitment, Logistics, Officer Corps

• Recruit & Deploy: Plan divisions, manage recruitment, and reinforce units.
  
• Logistics: Monitor equipment, resource situation, and overall stockpile.
  
• Officer Corps: Overview of command power allocation, military leadership management, doctrines, and preferred tactics.

This section introduces players to the various elements of the Hearts of Iron IV user interface, guiding them through critical aspects of the game for a smoother gameplay experience.

Controlling Your Military Forces

Army Operations

Moving Units: To direct your army units, select them with the left mouse button and then click their destination with the right mouse button. Drag a box around multiple units to command them collectively. For ocean crossings, send units to a province with a naval port, and then shift-click a destination port.

Army Overview: View and manage divisions' combat statuses by clicking the Army View icon under the date or by pressing hotkey "o". Right-click on a division's info bar or hold shift and left-click to select multiple units.

Organizing Armies: Effective troop management involves grouping them into armies under a commander's control. Click on the silhouetted portrait or green plus sign at the bottom of the screen to create armies. Then, assign generals or field marshals from the available list to lead them.

Experience and Orders

Gaining Experience: Accumulate army experience through combat or initiate it by exercising soldiers. Select the army group and click the exercise button; however, be mindful of increased equipment attrition.

Using Experience: Spend experience to promote generals or field marshals, allowing them to lead more troops or create/edit new division types in the unit production menu.

Battle Plans

Executing Orders: Command armies by issuing right-click move orders, but they perform better with battle plans. Naval invasions require naval intelligence and preparation time. Define offensive land operations by setting defensive and offensive fronts on the map.

Execution Timing: When ready, activate the plan by clicking the faded green arrow above the army group. Research doctrines or hire advisors to enhance plan preparation time or provide unit bonuses.

Navy Operations

Fleet Management: Ships are automatically grouped into fleets at ports; modify fleet organization by dragging and dropping ships between fleets. Assign admirals with specific skills to fleets for better performance in battles.

Mission Assignment: Select a fleet and choose from various orders, such as patrol missions or convoy escort duty. Assign missions by right-clicking on contiguous sea zones. Naval superiority is vital for successful operations in enemy-controlled regions.

Air Force Commands

Mobilizing Aircraft: Activate constructed airplanes by creating air wings at air bases. Larger airfields can efficiently manage more planes.

Mission Assignments: Aircraft operate over regions and are assigned specific missions based on their type. Click on an airfield to assign air wings to regions and choose the mission they should perform.

Effectively controlling your military in Hoi4 requires strategic planning, experienced leadership, and informed decision making across land, sea, and air. Master these controls to dominate your enemies and achieve victory, or at least try.

Managing Supplies

Supply Essentials: Armies in the field need supplies to function effectively. Lack of supply renders an army unable to take offensive actions, including movement. Supply is determined territorially, influenced by each territory's support capacity modified by the infrastructure of the stationed unit's State.

Supply Routes: Maintain contiguous States between home and the front lines to ensure uninterrupted supply lines. Land-based supplies come from adjacent territories, while overseas supply is managed through convoys and sea ports.

Overseas Supply: Utilize convoys and larger ports efficiently for overseas supply. Assign naval vessels to escort duty for effective supply transportation across regions.

Monitoring Supplies: Check supply lines and capacities by accessing the Supply map mode in the lower right menu on the main screen.

Special Weapons

Nuclear Attacks

Nuclear Capability: Unlock nuclear technologies and build nuclear reactors to acquire nuclear bombs. Deliver nuclear strikes using strategic bombers with 75% air superiority over the target province. Nuclear attacks cause significant damage to infrastructure and industrial areas.

Rocket Attacks

Guided Missiles: Research Experimental Rockets and Rocket Engines and build rocket sites to launch Basic Guided Missiles at distant States, damaging their infrastructure. Guided missiles auto-produce at rocket launch sites without consuming production or resources.

Using Rockets: Access the Air Theater Interface (F3) to deploy Rockets. Select Rocket Air Wings, assign the Strategic Bombing role, and choose the target region. Research advancements allow the production and launch of Improved and Advanced Guided Missiles.

Winning Strategies and Capitulation

Capitulation Conditions

Capitulation Threshold: Countries lose owned territory above a specific threshold linked to their war support, leading to capitulation. Disbanded divisions and occupied core territory follow, but governments-in-exile retain control of colonies.

Faction Surrender

Faction Defeat: Entire factions surrender when the last major country within capitulates. A peace conference follows, allowing victorious nations to make demands based on their war effort.

Peace Negotiations: Victors take turns making demands during the peace conference based on their contributions to the war effort. War demands have varying costs deducted from the victor's war score.

Understanding supply management, deploying special weapons effectively, and strategizing to push for capitulation can significantly influence your success in Hearts of Iron IV. Master these aspects to dominate the battlefield and secure victory in the game.

(More) Tips to Getting Started

Production Priorities

Focus on infantry equipment production initially. Until more military factories are constructed, allocate most of your resources to this crucial aspect of your military.

Training Divisions

Train multiple infantry divisions simultaneously to avoid falling behind in army size and strength.

National Focus and Research

Plan out National Focuses early to achieve strategic goals. Prioritize the unlocking of extra research slots as they significantly boost army performance.

Research Strategy

Avoid rushing too far ahead in technology; penalties exist for advancing too early. Computing in the electrical engineering track can significantly reduce research time.

Armies at Peace

Make use of army exercises during peacetime to train and gain experience. Expand forces by adding extra regiments or battalions.

Wartime Strategies

Let new equipment go to new units instead of reinforcing old ones during wartime. Adapt troop reinforcement based on current needs.

Economic Adjustments

Democracies should alter their economic ideas to free up civilian factories for military production.

Tactical Rest

After achieving objectives, allow armies to rest for a few days for better organization, reinforcement, and supply.

*Advanced Strategies*

Infrastructure and Fortifications

Invest in land forts and defensive plans along strategic lines to buy time during an invasion.

Resource Management

Research excavation to increase produced resources, reducing the need for trading. Focus factory production on areas of immediate need.

Manpower Conservation

Adjust conscription laws, attach Field Hospitals, and consider disbanding surplus units to manage low manpower. Optimize divisions to conserve manpower.

Doctrines Selection

Carefully select doctrines, understanding the considerable time investment required and potential penalties for switching doctrines mid-game.

Equipment Upgrades

Keep units updated with the next tier of equipment to enhance their performance significantly.

Faction Resource Considerations

Different factions possess distinct resource advantages and disadvantages. Strategize to secure essential resources or plan to seize them from enemies.

Naval and Air Combat

Initial confusion is normal; research and understand guides for air and naval combat strategies.

Mastering these essential and advanced strategies will aid in your journey to becoming a formidable force in Hearts of Iron IV. Explore, learn, and most importantly, enjoy the game!

Have Fun

As you begin your journey, remember that success in Hoi4 comes with practice, adaptation, and strategic thinking. Explore, experiment, and enjoy the thrill of creating alternate histories and dominating the battlefield, just have fun.

Im sorry there are no pictures in this guide, but I just didn't think that it would be worth it.

Goodbye.

[OVERLORD]

Love u stranger

[NotFaelixDrakes]

Finally, a HOI4 guide that isn't just "uninstall the game, there's no turning back". Take my points, kind stranger.

[Just_Coco]

thank you, helped a lot :)

[bungy rabish]

Thank you, kind stranger :3