Hello, and welcome to the 41st development diary for Hearts of Iron IV.
In HoI4, we call our basic military unit for a division, even if it may be as small as a single battalion, or as large 30 battalions. These can be grouped into what we call Armies. They have been referred to as command groups in the past, but that concept was a bit confusing. An Army is the entity which interacts with battleplans, and be given a commander. You can have as many armies as you want, but you need at least 1 division in each. Each Army can be named to whatever you want it to be.
Armies are organised in Theatres, which is a convenient aspect to group divisions according to your needs. Theatres do not have a specific area they cover, but besides giving a proper UI for quick access and a reference name, you can also define the reinforcement priority for that theatre compared to others.
There are two levels of commanders that can be assigned to armies, generals and field marshals. They both have skill levels that grow as they gain experience, which impacts the abilties of the divisions to fight.
The commanders also have traits, which can be gained if they fullfill some relevant criteria while fighting. Progress in trait gaining is tracked, and when they reach 100%, the trait is activated.
However, a commander can only have 5 traits, so they won’t catch them all.
A general can command up to 12 divisions while giving them the full benefit of their skill and traits. They can always be promoted to a field marshal, but will then lose all their specific traits and 1 level of skill.
Generals can have the following traits.
- Trickster: Divisions get +25% better recon.
- Winter Specialist: Divisions takes 50% less attrition during Winter.
- Engineer: Divisions have +10% Attack when crossing a river.
- Fortress Buster: Divisions have +20% Attack when attacking a fort.
- Panzer Leader: Armored Divisons move 5% faster, and have +10% in attack.
- Commando: Divisions Out of Supply is impact at 50%
- Desert Fox: Divisions move 5% faster in desert terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Swamp Fox: Divisions move 5% faster in marsh terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Mountaineer: Divisions move 5% faster in mountain terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Hill Fighter: Divisions move 5% faster in hill terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Jungle Rat: Divisions move 5% faster in jungle terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Ranger: Divisions move 5% faster in forest terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Urban Assault: Divisions move 5% faster in urban terrain, and fight 10% better.
- Naval Invader: Divisions prepare 30% faster for naval invasions, and perform them 30% faster
Field Marshals have no command limit, and command armies of any size, and they have the following possible traits.
- Logistics Wizard: Divisions have 20% less supply consumption
- Offensive Doctrine: Divisions have 10% less Combat Width.
- Defensive Doctrine: Divisions can get 30% higher entrenchment.
- Fast Planner: Divisions Plan 10% faster.
- Throrough Planner: Divisions can get 50% higher maximum planning bonus.
- Organisational commander: Divisions have +2% Hourly Reinforce Chance
- Inspirational commander: Divisons have 10% Higher Morale
And of course, both of them have the Old Guard trait, which reduces experience gain by 25%, which is a rather bad trait.
Next week, we’ll take a deep look at Japan.
