More like: What happened to Japan? Go podcat!

Hello everyone! This weeks topic will be the side effects of war: Occupation and Resistance.
Resistance
The main goal of modeling local resistance in HOI4 is to remove whack-a-mole of rebels running around and to model the strategic problems with occupying large chunks of enemy territory.

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Each occupied state you control has a resistance value indicating the strength of the resistance there. It will slowly grow over time. To reduce or halt growth you need to station troops in the area (preferably special divisions with military police support battalions which are very effective for this) or lower your occupation policy for the nation in question.
As the resistance grows in an area it has several effects:

• available supply is reduced creating bottlenecks
• your enemies get increased intel and will be able to see more of what is going on
• factories will suffer from sabotage and will need to be repaired
• troops will take more attrition

So it’s important to station troops to combat this, but of course that ties up valuable divisions you might want to use to fight the enemy. You can also appoint ministers with the Prince of Terror trait which will help to combat resistance growth in your occupied areas.
Occupation policies
You can set occupation policies for each nation you occupy. They range from Gentlest to Harshest, where harshest has the most aggressive resistance growth but lets you exploit the most
Gentlest:
– least factories
– local resources
– least resources
+ most manpower
+ less resistance growth
Harshest:
+ most resources
+ most factory output
+ most resources
– no manpower
– fastest resistance growth
Continue reading “Hearts of Iron IV – 44th Development Diary” →

In this game the UK and US make several invasions on Axis soil, but not all of them succeed. Also the number of fronts increased dramatically. And…
>1942
>Romania still bigger than IRL
>Neutrality intensifies

This week we will be going over all the diplomatic and otherwise options you have for affecting other nations. Diplomacy ties into a lot of stuff so expect links to previous diaries for all the nitty gritty! Lets go through all the diplomatic actions available…
Factions
One of the goals for HOI4 was to break free factions from ideologies and let players create their own. Ideology of creator will still matter for the factions special rules and bonuses and who will want to join it (for example being part of a fascist led faction let you declare war on anyone as long as you are already in war).
To create a faction a nation who doesn’t start with one needs to take a national focus giving them the ability to do so. Some focuses also sets up factions directly (like France ability to create the Little Entente with the Czechs). Even minors can make factions if they unlock the right focuses. If you make your own you are free to name it and will be its leader. Nations can leave factions in a few situation: Being Couped, leaving on their own (only works if they haven’t joined a war together) or some special focus and events. This means that in general, once you have joined a faction you are an ally that can be trusted.

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Continue reading “Hearts of Iron IV – 43rd Development Diary” →

Guess who asked the questions about Romania 😛

This time with a special guest playing Germany.

In this game, Finland is preparing for an extended Winter War.

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.

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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.

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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.

Finally Germany goes to war with Poland 😀 (last game ended with them giving the Danzig corridor).