Hearts of Iron IV News

Hearts of Iron 4 fans mark the end of current division meta with meme templates

Hearts of Iron IV's No Step Back expansion and free 1.11 update are coming next week, and I've not felt as excited about an expansion in a long while. One of the stated goals of the incoming content is to shake up the strategy game's fairly stale combat meta, where designing divisions for your armies has been reduced to a fairly clinical set of optimum choices.

The initial bones of this change can be seen in the recent patch notes, where the combat width for different types of provinces is changing. This means the old 40/20 meta (where you would build divisions of either 40 combat width or 20 combat width) is officially no more. Players have been celebrating this impending changing of the guard by sharing their favourite meme division templates.

User Comander-07 on the Hearts of Iron IV subreddit has shared an absolute beast of a template, which has a combat width of 60 and features ten battalions of super-heavy tanks (and 15 infanty battallions), which they have called 'Big Chungus'. You'd only need two of them to completely dominate a battle, although the resource requirements to actually build and maintain one would be crippling to most economies.

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Hearts of Iron 4 1.11 patch notes are here, and we are not ready

Hearts of Iron IV's No Step Back expansion and the free 1.11 'Barbaorssa' patch release next week, and we can finally look under the hood to see just how the WW2 grand strategy game is going to change. Spoiler: it's going to change a lot.

We've covered bits and pieces in the past, from Poland's rich alternate history, to the fact that the Soviet Union rework required its own design team, as well as the various army changes and armoured trains. We've also kept up with the supply rework coming as part of the free patch. Seeing everything laid out in the patch notes really hits home the gravity of this update - Hearts of Iron IV is about to enter a whole new era.

In terms of the free patch, the supply rework isn't the only thing that's being overhauled. Experience generation in the early-game now comes primarily from advisors, although active combat will still net you plenty of learnings to spend on other things, such as doctrines. Army, naval, and air doctrines used to take up a research slot, but now they are folded into the new Officer Corps view, and are now unlocked via branch experience.

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HOI4 Dev Diary - Patch Notes

An early look at our Patch Notes are available on our forums. Unfortunately, the notes are too large to fit onto steam in this format, an official patch notes post will accompany the release next week.

I will also take this opportunity to point out that as is normal for large updates, saved games from earlier versions will not be compatible with No Step Back. An opt-in rollback to the current live version will be provided when No Step Back and the Barbarossa update launch

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READ THE PATCHNOTES HERE[/h2]

Hearts of Iron 4 playerbase soars as Paradox reports poor performance

Paradox Interactive, the publisher behind strategy games Crusader Kings III and the upcoming Victoria 3, as well as city builder sensation Cities: Skylines, has today published its report for the third quarter of 2021. Spoiler alert: it could have been better.

Buried among the business stats and numbers were some neat game-specific facts, such as Hearts of Iron IV receiving more than twice the number of players now compared to what it did during the height of its launch period in mid-2016. It's one of Paradox's most popular grand strategy games, and contributes to the five million active users the publisher also reports for October 2021 across all its titles.

The report was mainly mired by disappointment, however. This quarter has proven to be one of the worst in company history - revenues are at a two-year low, with profits for the quarter the worst on record, the company reports. One of the big driving forces behind this quarter's slump involves the writing off of several projects that Fredrick Wester - newley re-appointed CEO - states the company felt had been in development for too long, and weren't of the desired quality.

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Dev Diary - Achievements

Hello, and welcome back to another Dev Diary for Hearts of Iron 4. As we close in on wrapping up this major operation, code-named Barbarossa, before winter falls (the first snow fell in Stockholm this weekend, I am sure it’ll be fine), today we will talk about the new achievements that will be added with the release of No Step Back.

As far as the process is concerned, we usually have an open list of achievement suggestions during the whole DLC development cycle. Near the end of the cycle, we take a vote on what achievements we want to see in the game (after eliminating any that would be technically impossible) and start the process of implementing them and ordering art.

For No Step Back, we started with a list of 49 suggestions, and whittled it down to 20 Achievements:

At least they run on time!: As fascist Italy, have max level railways in all your core states

Not much fun in Stalingrad: As Germany, capitulate the Soviet Union without taking Stalingrad

No more Partitions: As Poland, be independent and ensure that both Germany and the USSR are either in your faction or don’t exist

Habsburgs. Habsburgs everywhere: As Poland, install a Habsburg monarch and be in a faction with another Habsburg monarch.

The Pope? How many Divisions does he have?: As the USSR, take Rome.

This is going to be LIT: As Lithuania, hold the capitals of all of your neighbours

It has my name on it: As any Baltic State, conquer the entire shoreline of the Baltic Sea

This Achievement is Cheesy: As Latvia, form Ostland and occupy Vasterbotten. (n.b.: Vasterbotten is located in Lappland State)

Esti is Scandi: As Estonia, secure Scandinavia (n.b.: Every state in Scandinavia needs to be controlled by Estonia or a Subject of Estonia)

Not a step back!: As the Soviet Union never lose 1 core territory to anyone before 1945

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One Step Forward: As the Soviet Union, declare war on Poland and Germany before Germany attacks Poland.

The Soviet Onion: As the Soviet Union, have only puppets as neighbors

Crusader Kings III: As Poland, crown a Monarch and capture Jerusalem

The Romanovs laugh last: Restore the Romanovs to the throne and conquer Germany, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia,Turkey, and Bulgaria.

We don’t really like statistics: As the Soviet Union under Stalin, conquer Germany while suffering less than 1 million casualties total

Race for Germany: As the Soviet Union, capitulate Germany after the Fall of France but before the Allies control one German core state

Siberian Tiger: As Tannu Tuva, form Siberia

Just proper gander: As the Soviet Union, activate 30 propaganda campaigns before 1945.

Around Eurasia in 80 days: Have a railroad from Gibraltar to Singapore

Poland Peasant Revolution: As Poland, have the Peasant’s Strike overthrow the government.

That's all from us today! Next week, you will get the Patchnotes for 1.11 Barbarossa (unless we are thrown out of position by a sudden enemy counter-attack).
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