Hearts of Iron IV - 20th Development Diary - 14th of August 2015

[Johan]

Hello, and welcome back to the forums after the summer holidays.

Today we’ll take a look at the Soviet Union and the Communism Ideology. I guess we don’t have to teach you guys about where the Soviet Union is on the map.

The Soviet Union starts with the risk of Trotskyite plot, giving -20% National Unity, and also being the Home of the Revolution, which is a solid +50% defence against non-communist influence. They are communist, and thus have no elections. There is a fair amount of selection in each aspect of goverment for them.

The Soviet Union have 138 divisions in the 1936 start, but they are mostly infantry, with a few “mechanized” divisions, which is mostly light tanks & trucks. The Soviet Army is pretty average at the start, but due to their doctrine tree, they start with a higher reinforce chance than others.

As you can see on the screenshot below, we have truly dumbed down the game, and made all those hidden values we have in the game visible, with tooltips explaining them in details.

Soviet Union have an interesting focus tree, which you can see part of is in this screenshot, with 5 different paths to progres down.

• Five Year Plan - Leads to various things building up Infrastructure and Industry.
• Stalin Constitution - Which amongst other things gives you better research.
• Anti-Fascist Diplomacy - Lets you move borders and eventually destroy the fascists.
• Anti-Capitalist Diplomacy - Is a naval and mediterranean focus
• The Great Purge - Gives benefits later for penalties early.

Actions of communist countries have less of an impact on World Tension when declaring wars and expanding their factions. They are also allowed to puppet countries through wars, and are not limited about when they can send expeditionary forces. It is also cheaper for communists to puppet other countries.

Next week, we'll talk a bit about combat.

 

[podcat]

Does puppeting also mean installing a Communist regime?

yes

 

[podcat]

Does this mean some nations ( allied faction perhaps?? ) aren't allowed to puppet enemy nations through war??

yeah, allies can't puppet.

Shouldnt a division have 9000 weapons instead of 900?

its "packages" of weapons and equipment to keep numbers manageable.

 

[podcat]

Does the great officer purge remove the risk of the trotskyite plot....and if ignored can this plot lead to a civil war?

Yes, eventually. The Purge is a full series of events and focuses dealing with the issue in different ways.

But the 200 motorized vehicles and 300 T-26s are actually 200 trucks and 300 tanks, or do they also represent "packages" of vehicles?

no vehicles are vehicles

Podcat are you there?

Could you give a small explanation as to what is the different between getting a casus belli from a focus as opposed to fabricating a claim?

there will be a future diary on the difference between claims/CBs etc but generally the difference is that stuff from focuses allow you to declare war right away (and as such are generally faster) and they also dont expire, while fabricated will time out if you dont use them within a time window (with a political penalty if you dont use it).

"The Soviet Army is pretty average at the start, but due to their doctrine tree, they start with a higher reinforce chance than others." What does this mean in game terms?

In HOI there is a limited combat width in combats, extra units (when there is room) has a chance every hour of joining the frontline. Soviet doctrine lets them join quicker than other doctrines so you can keep piling on men.

 

[podcat]

I assume you can't go with Trotsky... but that would be awesome. The guy had really fun ideas about spreading the Revolution.

or can you....?!?!

Question regarding the national focus tree. Have you always had it turned that way? I mean does it work better than if it had branched out from the left -> right instead of top -> down. The thing im interested in is the horizontal scroll (which is needed in the current setup) which i always find cumbersome compared to a vertical scroll (which we are all used to from webpages etc.).

I would even go so far to ask if you have wondered if it could be split under 2 tabs instead of having a horizontal scroll. But then again it might end up being intuitive when i try it.

nobody uses the scrollbars, you can just drag the background around like the map

 

[Rufo]

Will we be able to depose Stalin and welcome Trotsky back to the Soviet Union? If so will this remove the ability to sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact? What effect would this have if it is possible in-game? I'd love this ability to completely change history and it seems like it would be easy to implement.

Yes, Stalin being deposed and Trotsky taking his place a possible outcome that has been implemented. It comes at a steep price, however, as Trotsky will execute many Stalin loyalists if he gains enough support to come back. However, Stalin will also have to go about his paranoid purges to keep this from happening. Being a general or minister in the Soviet Union at this time is risky no matter who is in power.

 

[podcat]

The two green arrows and the exclamation mark symbol (see the Collectivist propaganda and Positive heroism), what is its meaning? Does it symbolize the mutual exclusivity of these two focuses?

yes