I like playing as independent Ireland and using the war to do a communist 26+6=1 and maybe even more
Haha, enjoy four hours of tutorials on YouTube.
In all seriousness, I had to watch several tutorials and a lot of trial and error. Only in my third or fourth attempt at a failed campaign playing Kaiserriech did I finally manage some basic mastery of the mechanics. Once you work out how something functions and implement it correctly with payoff, it'll be the best feeling.
The base game is kinda ideologically meh at best and leaves you wanting for loads of DLC to get the most out of it. Kaiserreich is perfectly adequate for a first time player.
i'm copying the mod installation guide from the cs rin hoi4 mod topic because it was a bit better than my last post lol.
Location of Hearts of Iron mods is -> \My Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\Mod\ . If there is no Mod folder create
-
Download the archived file for a mod from link provided above.
-
Archive files are named with numbers like link of the mods on Steam. To see what mods you want look the link mod id and search it in MEGA.
-
Extract the archive File contents to temporarily folder.
-
Take the "Descriptor.mod" file, rename it to <modname>.mod, put it in the \Mod\ root directory.
-
Edit the .mod file with notepad (or any text editor program), edit only this line: (this is just the example of one mod)
archive="blorg.zip"
to
path="mod/blorg"
-
All other lines leave to be the same. Now save the edited .mod file.
-
Make new folder in the same \Mod\ root directory and name it the same you edit in "Descriptor.mod" (in this case "blorg").
-
Now place all folders and files if any from temporarily folder to the new folder you will create in the \Mod\ root directory ("blorg" folder).
This will look like this:
\Mod\Blorg<mods files and folders>
\Mod\blorg.mod
i get the game from cs.rin.ru, and i get kaiserreich here. let me know if you have any questions!
hey just to clarify so the final directory should be \Mod\Blorg\<mods files and folders> or \Mod\blorg.mod\<mods files and folders>?
https://i.imgur.com/r8jal2t.png
Each mod needs a blorg.mod file in the \Mod folder, then contents of the mod go in \mod\blorg
The fitgirl version seems to be 1.9.3, the 5.2 version of KR lists the supported version of HOI4 as 1.10.3
I'm bored at work rn, if you get it running ping me on discord, I might have time to join your game and help out.
-
I'm afraid I don't know as I have the retail Steam copy. HoI does have a client for updates that connects to the Web, but I haven't tried kaiserreich outside the Steam workshop.
every crack I've gotten includes a launcher with it. Might be in the folder you downloaded, like an installer for paradox launcher. It might not have the full functionality of the launcher (doesn't start the game from launcher, have to use shortcut), but it'll do for mod setup.
and manually installing the mods is more difficult than through steam so be sure to take your time and google when you have questions
No mod can match up to Operation Barbarossa in the base game in terms of engaging with the core mechanics, but that's best done in multiplayer. Mods are really fun, generally more narrative focused than the base game
I started no less than three failed US civil war campaigns before I started to understand the mechanics, then I played another failed campaign as Union of Britain before I finally nutted up and tried another US civ war run and finally established global socialism. Just keep at it comrade.
i love how they make it legit hard as shit like it would be in real life. it feels like a cinematic epic struggle and tastes so sweet if you do it.
step one: abandon the game. it's so bad. you need 4 dlcs and 5 mods to make it above average of what you'd expect. the community is trash. ever since i got hoi4 my life has been spiraling down and it's not an exageration.
I spent so much time and MONEY, since it needs a beast of a graphic card to run. I got started on discord through hoi and kaiserreich and i wouldnt be here without it, so how dare they.
i had it on a computer and while it's pretty old i would have thought it was better than a normal pc, but it needed a GRAPHICS CARD to run hoi4?? a map game??
if you want intense and at times needless complexity play hoi3, if you want endless possibilities play darkest hour
no i dont want any of this, after a couple of years i realized "yknow what, i dont like grand strategy games, and i certainly wont give more money to paradox"
For real the best way to learn is to play as the Italians. You start off at war with Ethiopia, and you have a few colonies but not too many, you have a decent force but with lots of room for improvement (your "tank" battallions contain exactly one tank and six squadrons of horses lmao), and you can also just ignore the Naval mechanics until after you've finished learning how land combat works. There's this let's play on YouTube where the guy goes communist as Italy which you can watch for tips.
If you have the DLC I would disable Man the Guns and La Resistance while you get your footing with the game's primary mechanics, since those two DLC just tend to add a ton of complexity which could distract you from learning the more essential systems.
Second this. Play a game on historical mode (literally just a checkbox when you start a new game) and follow along. Figure out how to set up frontlines, do attack orders, etc.
It will take you a good several games before you really figure out how to use everything at your disposal. Dont worry about winning or losing the war and just focus on doing the best you can. There are a bazillion mods that make hoi4 endlessly replayable but none of them are going to be fun until you get the basics down.
Naval shit is generally super annoying so I'd recommend just focusing on ground forces and air.
Naval shit is generally super annoying
I almost never mess with the stuff from Man the Guns, in fact keeping up with unit upgrades generally requires way too much micromanagement for me to ever want to do it (even if it can be super effective ie making really cheap mine-laying submarines), but the basics of fleet deployment and reinforcement can be automated if you set your fleets up right.
Air combat really bugs me though. I want to tell my planes to fly missions within their fuel range, but the way the skies are divvied up into "air zones" is really counter-intuitive. Plus there's the boring micromanagement demanded of you if you want to use carriers, moving your fleet and the reassigning air orders every single time.
The previous air system was even worse if you can believe it.
Oh snap.
I generally ignore strategic bombers, assign all of my fighters and CAS to my armies somewhat evenly, and let it handle itself, while occasionally building new airports if I notice a gap. My hate of micromanagement really limits what I can get out of this game
honestly if you play singleplayer, you can just attach your airwings to your armies and have the ai do that shit for you
There’s chapo gaming discord set up, I’m sure some people would be open to a game of hoi
Download Equestria at War. Yes, the pony mod. It is both more approachable for new players while at the same time have more things going on in it than vanilla.
https://equestria-at-war.fandom.com/wiki/What_Country_Should_I_Play%3F
Its also on moddb https://www.moddb.com/mods/equestria-at-war/downloads/equestria-at-war-1831-in-the-shadow-of-mountains-nightmare-night
This, but if it's still too intimidating, I'm sure you can find someone to hotjoin and do co-op with you if you post in discord next time you're playing.
Co-op consists of two or more players controlling the same country. If there's something important you're missing or not understanding, they can back you up.
It works better with major countries where there's enough going on that you divide up who controls a front or diplomacy or production or naval.
I love TNO but I wouldn't recommend it until you get the hang of base Hoi4.
I started playing HoI IV with TNO, first game was with the WRRF and it was actually ok (nothing but pure border wars), then the game glitches due to a new patch dropping in and I decided to restart as Comrade Sablin because I was told it's hard as fuck to beat ghoulish Yagoda, but I did it anyways. Then I beat the living shit out of the Tsarists, the Anarcho-Christian dudes and the Fascists (The Nazis of Amur got completely yeeted), so everything was going great. Rurik II won Central Siberia and Omsk was battling out Zhukov, I wasn't even prepared, Rurik rolled through my country and the True Socialist Dream ended. My units basically desintegrated against Rurik's infantry, 4 of my units just melted under attack from one of theirs, my only tank division was literally worthless.
So yeah, I think starting with basic HoI IV is the way to go.
i will never be convinced that these map games aren't just watching paint dry with a little nationalism thrown in as a treat
The fans skew nationalist, but the devs definitely have some good knowledge about communism. The tech trees for every country has a communist branch that has the actual leaders of the larger communist parties from those countries. It's fun as a communism simulator. Especially when you manage to do internationalism and prevent the Nazis from ever gaining power.
If you're trying to brute force learn with no DLC/ no mods, try playing as japan. They've got an early industrial and military advantage so you can get a feel for how the mechanics work, and it's nearly an absolute advantage against china and the united front for the first few years. It's not as critical to build your economy precisely, you can get away with just building military factories, as opposed to civilian factories.
Japan has a focus tree geared towards early war with china around late '36 at the earliest which A: they have a lot of debuffs for a few years B: mainly use infantry with few artillery at first, and C: is largely a soft land war for a while, so it isn't as necessary to use an air force, navy, tanks, or big guns effectively to make gains. Tho fair warning, the United Front effectively doesnt run out of manpower unlike the most other nations, and expect heck from the other major nations in the later game around '41.
Tough a few games out and see how many casualties you're taking with what equipment (i.e. using buncha artillery or tanks or air force) and adjust on each game. Once you start to see how the game is balanced, you can play pretty well with most nations and different military concentrations (arty, tanks, aerial) given a smartly developed economy.
If you think you're starting to get it, a more moderate challenge would be defeating a major faction as germany or the Soviet union, tho each of these it's much more critical to know how to manage your economy. Somebody else said to try Italy, I think they're the hardest major country to play in vanilla.
Mods, take a crack at Kaiserreich, the New Order, Equestria at War, Road to '56 (this one especially if you dont mind playing the same game for a WHILE), and the Great War (this one for a challenge).
You'll learn half the game from reading the flavor text from hovering your cursor over everything.
Play with iron man mode off for a while, much less frustration. And make sure autosave is set to go weekly or monthly, I think it's either set to go annually or off by default. Resolves many learnin' issues.
Been playing for a while, and it's like my main PC game.
Hope this helps, typed this as I'm playing right now btw. Also, you win the game for good once you capitulate the US and Germany as communist Iran.
Go Ethiopia. Hide all your troops in the capital, Addis Abada. Build forts in your capital. Develop infantry guns upgrade. Break out of Addis Abada with the goal of taking italy's 2 ports on the horn of Africa and in Etria. You basically win as Ethiopia once you take the ports.
I enjoyed it but the learning curve is still a little steep for me. Been a few months since I torrented it and played. I’ve been getting really into Steel Division 2 tho, a bit smaller scale which I like a lot.
Hoi4 is 90 percent planning and 10 percent watching your guys execute. Just look at the numbers along your opponents line and come up with a strategy for attack or defense. There is a tool once you group troops under your field marshals and your generals that paints frontlines. Use that excessively. Don't be afraid to pause to do so. Deliver individual commands as necessary. Trucks and tanks can be split off from your main infantry line to attack specific targets or to literally just cut off your opponents escape by getting around them
