Hello, and welcome back to another DevDiary about content coming in the 1.11 “Barbarossa” patch and its accompanying DLC. As always, keep in mind that the things shown in this DevDiary are still under development, so the numbers and UI might change before release.

Ever since we revealed the ship designer in Man the Guns, people have been asking about a similar system for tanks. We did, however, want to improve a bit on the ship designer. In particular, we felt that the ship designer was encouraging too many generalist designs. Part of the problem is that ships have a very long lead time before they become available, so it is difficult to iterate on the designs in a timely fashion. When your ship takes two years to build, you can’t really specialize it too much, because you can’t always accurately predict the situation in two years.

Thankfully, tanks require a somewhat smaller investment (although our QA certainly has tried to make designs that rival ships in cost), so you see a new tank design in the frontlines much sooner than a new ship, allowing you to react to new situations much faster.

Another thing is that ships usually had trade-offs between different capabilities, in the sense that the space (or module slot) taken up by a torpedo launcher could also be taken up by an AA gun, making the ship better against one or the other type of enemy. But rarely did you want a ship that had no AA or no way to defend itself against surface targets, so you always wanted some AA and some ship attack.

Tanks, on the other hand, don’t usually have trade-offs in the same way. You don’t usually design a tank, wondering if you should put on another AA gun or a second gun against surface targets (unless, of course, you are German and it's 1944).

But Tanks still have trade-offs in their design, and we wanted to represent those. Traditionally, tank design revolves around three aspects: Mobility, Firepower, and Protection. A well-armored tank is slow, a fast tank can’t carry a big gun, and a big gun requires a large tank, which is difficult to armor. During the war, different nations tried different approaches, and learned different lessons from their observations - it is no surprise that the last German tanks of the war were heavily-armored vehicles carrying massive guns, but the first post-war design was the comparatively lightly armored but well-armed and quite nimble Leopard 1.

So we wanted to make you think about these three aspects, and have it be a trade-off between them. However, in a grand strategy game, other aspects also matter more than in the typical comparison of tank designs - the best tank in the world is useless if it breaks down on the way to the battlefield (Panther fans take note), and it is even more useless if you can’t afford it. So we wanted cost and reliability to also matter when designing a tank or armored vehicle.

In contrast to ships, we wanted to make you think more about specializing your designs to fill a certain niche, and optimize it towards a specific role. While you will probably still want to have a somewhat middle-of-the-road design for your main production medium tank (one might call it “the Sherman”), there is a place for more specialized designs as well.

As part of this approach, we will be making changes to the reliability system and the armor system. The details will be forthcoming in a future dev diary (together with other combat changes), but the broad strokes are that reliability will not just affect the rate of attrition, and that the armor system will become less binary. As part of these changes, we also decided to give mechanized equipment some upgrades, so that it can keep up with tanks.



Under the new system, reliability is meant to represent both the likelihood that a given piece of equipment breaks down as well as the likelihood that it suffers catastrophic damage when hit and the effort necessary to repair it. In effect, reliability also represents the carrying capacity of a given chassis, so you effectively have a reliability budget for every chassis to work with. The more armor you put on it, the bigger the weapon etc., the more reliability drops. Heavier or more advanced tank chassis generally have more reliability (over 100% on the base chassis in some cases).

But enough of the basics, let’s talk about what you really want to know: What’s the Kampfwagenkanone Zweiundvierzig in game terms? Is the weird hybrid-electric drive of the Elefant represented? Do we get to set the exact angle of the front armor or just the thickness?

Much like ships, tanks are based on a hull (called a chassis) and a number of modules that define the actual stats of the final design. These modules act a little different from the way the ship designer works. While the main armament is fairly self-evident, other “modules” represent something like “design features”. These features are meant to be distinct enough that even someone who does not have an in-depth understanding of armor development during the war can at least understand that different armor types are good for different things.




Instead of scripting in a gigantic list of armor types with different thickness, armor is represented by a thickness and a production method: Riveted Armor is the cheapest kind, but also the weakest. Cast Armor is the strongest, but also the most expensive.
Welded Armor is a compromise between the two extremes, making it the most cost-efficient (arguments can be made either way between cast and welded armor since welding does require specialized equipment and training).

Armor thickness is changed through something much like the old, vanilla upgrade system, with up to 20 different levels. You start with being able to put up to 5 levels of armor (roughly equivalent to 50 mm of armor) on a tank, but research allows you to put more on. Higher levels of armor protection require more resources, such as steel and eventually chromium. There is no limit to the amount of armor you can put on a chassis as such - if you want to make a light tank with the armor protection of a Tiger, you can (it’s called a Panzer I Ausf. F). The amount of armor upgrades on the vehicle translates to an actual armor value based on the type of armor you have selected, so 5 levels of riveted armor are still weaker than 5 levels of cast armor - but much cheaper.



Engine types are also meant to be simple to understand. Gasoline Engines are faster than Diesels for the same weight, but Diesels are more reliable. Beyond that, Electric hybrid engines are a very situational pick. We originally intended for them to be a joke pick - costly, unreliable, fuel inefficient - but on some further reading, the rationale behind them was that they offered better mobility in broken terrain. In game, this is represented by a small bonus to breakthrough and defense. Finally, there are gas turbines, which are unlocked from jet engine research. They are the fastest engine option, but take up a lot of fuel. Like armor, engines also have an upgrade system where you can set the level of engine power (up to 20). It should be noted that the speed of most historical designs is going to be lower than the stated max speed of the vehicle they are based on. This is because we represent the operational speed of a vehicle, i.e. how far the vehicle can get in 24 hours - tanks don’t drive around all day at maximum speed, they have to stop for refuelling, resting the crew, basic maintenance etc.

Turrets are split between different kinds and are meant to represent things like crew ergonomics. Early in the war, a lot of countries had tanks with one or two-man turrets, and one advantage the Germans had was having a commander who could direct the rest of the crew without also having to service the main gun. This is represented by bonuses to breakthrough with different turrets. A special type is the fixed superstructure. Main guns are differentiated by size (small, medium, large, super-heavy), which correspond roughly with the weight classes of tanks. Light tanks can only carry small weapons etc. - unless they have a fixed superstructure, which enables them to carry guns one size bigger, allowing you to mount a medium gun on a light tank chassis. Having a fixed superstructure also adds bonuses to defense while giving a penalty to breakthrough, making it a good option for vehicles meant to defend.



Suspensions affect mainly reliability and speed. The most basic kind is the Bogie suspension, which adds some reliability, while Christie suspension adds quite a bit of speed. Torsion Bar suspension adds more reliability than Bogies, but is more expensive. Interleaved Roadwheels - as seen on the later German tanks - add some breakthrough, but have reliability problems (the overlapping wheels add some protection and redundancy against fire coming from the side, but are difficult to repair and maintain). Light Chassis can also select wheeled and half-track suspensions, which make the vehicle itself quite a bit cheaper, but also drop reliability.



The main weapon has probably the biggest impact on the offensive stats of the vehicle. There are a lot of different options to choose from, but we have tried to give every weapon type it’s own niche, with realistic drawbacks and advantages, so for example the High-velocity tank guns (like the KwK 42 or the American 76mm) have worse soft attack but very good piercing and hard attack, while howitzers have very poor hard attack and piercing, but spectacular soft attack. This means that for example the early German tanks do struggle a bit against the French, which have pretty heavy armor (but suffer in other regards, mostly because of their one-man turrets).

As you can see, we made an effort to not have a giant tech tree this time. The tech tree for the new chassis is about the same size as the old armor tech tree, and the other modules are unlocked primarily through the artillery tab.



Finally, every chassis has 4 slots for “Special Modules”. These can include radios, which give bonuses to breakthrough and defense; secondary turrets for all your T-35 needs; smoke launchers; extra ammunition storage and wet ammo storage. Deciding whether or not a tank uses sloped armor also happens in this area. Perhaps most intriguing is the Amphibious Drive, which allows you to designate a design as an amphibious tank for the purpose of amphibious tank battalions (MtG owners only).

Designating designs for certain roles ensures that they are used in those subunits. Some roles require certain characteristics - for example, you can’t have an AA tank that uses a fixed superstructure. But it is completely possible to make both the German tank destroyers with fixed superstructures and the American ones with turrets and have them go to tank destroyer units. The weight class of the chassis determines the weight class of the final design, so a design on the heavy chassis that is designated as a tank destroyer is treated as a heavy tank destroyer. This also means we can represent vehicles that changed roles during the war more easily, so you can have your StuG III equivalent with a high-soft attack gun go to your armored artillery battalions in the early war, but then switch out the gun to something with better piercing and have it work as a tank destroyer afterwards.

Since we want you to optimize designs for different purposes, we also wanted to make sure that you can easily decide where a certain tank design ends up. So for example, you can follow the British approach of having fast cruiser tanks to use in armored divisions, and slower infantry tanks that go to support your infantry divisions. To do this, you tag a design with a symbol. You can then quickly select from a list of symbols in the division designer to make the division only pull equipment tagged as such. Equipment that isn’t tagged (such as lend-lease and captured foreign equipment, or equipment not tagged at all) will still be used for divisions that don’t have a specific tag requirement set.

We also took another look at what automation features were necessary for people who don’t want to spend a lot of time fine-tuning their tank designs (weird and alien though that thought may be to most of us). We do, of course, have the usual auto-design functionality. It takes the design the AI would use and offers it for approval. This has gotten some love, and there should now be some national flavor in how the AI designs its tanks. It also takes the overall situation into account, so tanks will be up-armored during the war and so on. Beyond that, we also have added an auto-upgrade function, which keeps a given design current as you research new guns, chassis etc. You can either click on a design you made in the past and upgrade it with a single click to the newest components (so a Radio I becomes a Radio II etc.), or click a checkbox to do so automatically. You don't have to pay XP for an automatic design upgrade, but you won't get thicker armor or a better engine that way. Still, we think that the combination of auto-design and auto-upgrade allows players to interact with the system as much or as little as they like.



To make the tank designs more visually distinct in the production view, we have added about 1000 new 2d icons to use for them, mostly stemming from combining parts of existing tanks in new ways (the gun of Tank A with the turret of Tank B etc.). The historical icons are, of course, still available. You can select the icon while making the design, as well as the 3d asset used to represent the vehicle on the map.





That’s all from us today for this feature. Before closing, I would like to note a few things on the subject of giving feedback. When I first started at Paradox, the direct line between community and developers was a major plus for me, because I liked the idea of talking to the community without having to run every post past three different marketing departments first. However, this kind of direct community access comes at a heavy cost for us. As many of you have noticed, we have gotten a little sparse in these forums in the last few months, or even years. The reason for this is that often we do face a debate culture that is not enjoyable to take part in, where it is taken as a given that the devs are either lazy or incompetent and where everything we do is viewed through that lens. Not only is it incredibly demoralizing to spend months of your life creating something, only to see the people you made it for tear it to shreds, it is also a debate that gives no one anything. We aren’t paid to wade through pages of abuse to find a few nuggets of useful feedback, and so that feedback is not acted on. A lot of you have access to sources in languages we don’t speak or have studied some detail that we weren’t aware of. Such feedback is very useful - just a few weeks ago someone sent me a plan of the Turkish railways in 1936 taken from an old Turkish book, so I was able to use that to update the Turkish railway setup at game start.

We’re not looking for fawning adoration (although we will certainly accept it) or a forum in which our decisions can’t be discussed with a critical eye. We want to have your feedback, but there is no point to it if it can’t be delivered with a minimum of respect for each other. If you want to have a forum where developers are willing to go and answer your questions, then it is also your responsibility to build a place where we feel welcome, and where we can disagree in a productive and professional manner. It costs you nothing to assume that we were acting in good faith. None of us wake up in the morning and go to work in order to do a bad job.

Extra Secret Spoiler: here are some tank designs QA has made over the past few months while we were developing this. Please note that the numbers on the screenshots are several versions out of date and that the issues pointed out in these shots have been fixed since then.

Hello folks and welcome back to the Poland dev-diary extravaganza! This week, I am going to continue covering the changes coming to Poland in 1.11 Barbarossa and the unannounced DLC.Today we’ll be covering the DLC content.



So, I’m going to start here with something a bunch of you predicted last week; you can indeed play as the Peasants’ Strike! A Poland with ambitions to restore democracy or embrace the communist revolution must first build an organized peasant militia from the rabble of disorganized farmers!



No matter how many or few states join you in the strike, the rebellious state will be in a delicate balancing act between democrats and socialists. Your first step towards revolution is to sway the Front Morges to take up the peasant’s cause, the Morges being an alliance of political parties supported by a select few Polish generals including Sikorski.



Each focus you do in this initial block will add 5 support to either communism or democracy, with a total of 50% or more being needed for one to assert dominance over the other and take control of the government.



Similar to the Spanish Civil War, the Peasants’ Strike will be on a tight schedule, taking up to a year before the revolution happens. Poland will at first be able to add agricultural states to the strike, but by expanding the strike to factory workers, Poland will also be able to bring states from Poland’s industrial heartland into the revolution.



Along with contesting for popular support, gaining military support will be vital for the movement. Using decisions, certain field marshals and generals will be swayed to your cause and gain the “Peasant Sympathiser” trait, ensuring that they will join your side when the war begins.



Poland will begin with socialist politician Stanisław Mikołajczyk as country leader, but those who wish to see the return of Wincenty Witos will be able to bring him back to leadership via event.



Once the civil war is won, Poland will be in a vulnerable state. Recuperating manpower and resources after a civil war will place Poland in a precarious position, so some concessions and outreach for foreign assistance may be needed.



A communist Poland will have two options: they may be bold and elect an anti-Stalinist candidate as Chairman, or they may elect the Soviet-aligned Władysław Gomułka. However, aligning with the Soviets will come at the cost of ceding Eastern Poland, but will unlock a few focuses for dealing with the USSR.



With democracy, Poland may take advantage of the Front Morges’ ambitions for closer relations with the French and create the Morges Pact, a sort-of Poland-led Little Entente. Going down this route will allow Poland access to the Between the Seas branch we talked about last week.



Anti-Soviet communists will be able to denounce both Capitalism and Fascism, diplomatically isolating this people’s republic, but allowing for new expansion options and military bonuses against the empires of this world. In doing so, they will gain a powerful attack and defence bonus against major powers.



Both democrats and anti-Soviet communists will also be able to declare the destruction of fascism a greater cause than the spread of socialism and align themselves with the British Empire. Doing so will allow Poland to renew her interests in colonialism and attempt to purchase colonies from Allied powers. By officially recognising the Maritime and Colonial League, Poland can purchase Madagascar, Palestine, and more. If any of your purchases are successful, Poland will have somewhere to build their forces in exile, should the front back home fail.



No matter which option you pick, either conquering or building alliances with the Baltic States will allow you to create a new kind of Commonwealth: the Commonwealth of Socialist Republics.



Moving on to the next branch, we have the Regency Council: Poland’s attempt to “restore” the monarchy. The Act of the Fifth of November was the promise of the Central Powers to release a Kingdom of Poland from the occupied territories of the Russian Empire, but the Regency Council of the newly formed Kingdom of Poland failed to crown a King before Józef Piłsudski declared the Second Polish Republic.



With the Regency Council assembled, Poland will be able to choose from one of three claimants, each with their own complete political path. There were countless claimants and candidates for the Polish throne so it was impossible for me to make content for them all, so we have: The Hohenzollern, The Commonwealth Claimant, and the Cossack-King to choose from!



The Commonwealth Claimant is perhaps the most obvious: Poland’s preferred candidate for King was Friedrich Christian. Christian was preferred due to Poland’s long connection with the houses of Saxony, and with a claimant so supported by the Poles, you are able to claim the throne of Lithuania without the need for warfare.



Through decisions, Poland can trend monarchist sentiment up in Lithuania, and when it reaches high enough, they may either enter a civil war or peacefully take over the government. When either case has happened, Poland can annex the Lithuanian Kingdom and begin integrating the industries of their two nations and preparing for war with the Soviets and Germans: restoring the old borders of the Commonwealth and then some!



Poland and Romania enjoyed close relations at the start of HoI’s timeframe, and with the throne of Poland empty, Poland may throw herself into the complex mess of Romanian politics by electing a Romanian King.



With King Michael on the throne of Poland, the Kingdoms will be able to unite under the right circumstances. Either by Polish interference or by Romania completing “King Michael’s Coup”, Romania and Poland will be united, bringing their armies together and becoming a powerful wall between the Axis and the Comintern.



This Intermarium nation may seek Balkan Domination and a restoration of Poland-Hungary, or (as with the Commonwealth) it may seek to maintain its alignment with the Allies.

Finally, we have the most unlikely candidate for the throne: Pavel Bermondt-Avalov.



A warlord, a cossack, and a Georgian Prince, Pavel led an interesting life of conquest and warfare. In the interwar period, Pavel and his Bermontian host invaded Lithuania and Latvia for reasons historians are still unsure of, but his ambition for Baltic domination makes him the ideal candidate for militarizing the Polish state into action and dominating the Baltics and Czechoslovakia.



When done conquering the Baltics, Pavel will be able to either turn his militarized Polish Kingdom against the Germans and asser Poland’s claims in Silesia and Pomerania or, as a National Socialist, Pavel may wish to seek alignment with the Germans, which brings us on to the fascist branch.



Poland was home to a multitude of fascist and nationalist movements: the most notable of which are the Endecja (or National Democracy) and the Falanga. The Sanation historically made dealings with both of these groups, and as such, if you want either Endecja or Falanga to take control, you must collaborate with the Sanation until you are able to supplant them.

When either Endecja or Falanga have taken over the government, they will have a choice to either stand firm with Polish nationalism or make concessions to the Germans and attempt to seek an alliance.



Aligning with the Germans will not place you on equal grounds, and it is not as easy as it once was. Germany will refuse to ally with Poland unless Danzig and Poznan are surrendered and Poland becomes a German subject. Unlike Czechoslovakia though, the Poles will be able to break their shackles and tear the Reich apart from within.

With either Pavel, Piasecki, or Dmowski in control, Poland will be presented with a ladder of focuses enabling them to either gain powerful bonuses from the Germans or plot with the Underground State to overthrow their current masters.



Going for independence will allow Poland to switch sides and stab Germany in the back, whereas remaining loyal will enable Poland to gain some cores in the USSR in a sort-of reverse Yalta Conference.



However, a Falanga or Endecja that does not bow to the Germans will be able to lean into the Polish Catholic identity and form the Falangist International: a faction devoted to the perseverance of Falangist ideals.



Once the Spanish Civil War is done with, if either the Carlists, Nationalists, or Falangists come out on top, Poland will be able to bring them into their own faction and from there, they will be able to expand that faction to other nations where Falangism was present such as: Mexico, the Netherlands, and much of Latin America.

They will have access to decisions to boost fascism in those nations, and with a certain percentage achieved, those nations will be invited to join the Falangist International. These focuses invite multiple nations at once, so the faction can grow very large very quickly.



Similar to the Sanation path, the Polish fascists must choose between allying with Lithuania or attempting to reclaim the legacy of the Commonwealth, but choose wisely. Without allying Lithuania, this Poland will be unable to progress down the Between the Seas path, severely limiting their faction’s ability to expand.

That’s about it for the political paths, so I’ll wrap this one up by talking about a feature we haven’t touched in quite some time: Governments in Exile.



Unlike France and the Netherlands, Poland does not by default have a vast colonial empire to which they may retreat when things fall apart back home, so Poland will be entirely reliant on the support and goodwill of their allies and the network of resistance fighters in the Polish Underground State.



In exile, the Polish government went through a number of Prime Ministers and Presidents before landing on something the Allies were satisfied with. If Poland is following a historical route and is exiled in a Democratic nation like Britain or France, they will demand the resignation of the Sanation leaders, and from there, Poland may pick from one of three new leaders, each with a unique personality enabling them to gain manpower while in exile.



On top of that, they will gain access to Irena Anders as a political adviser, granting more legitimacy, stability, and exiled manpower.



In the exile focus tree, Poland can gain a number of offmap factories and dockyards, and bonuses to their ace generation and an increase in special forces cap. Poland will never muster a major army while exiled, but with these bonuses, Poland will still be able to keep fighting on with a small but specialised force.



Owners of La Resistance will gain access to a slew of agency bonuses including an increase to their spy capacity, free agency upgrades via focus, and the new Warsaw Uprising operation.



Completing the operation will trigger the Warsaw Uprising sooner than the game mechanics usually allow. With 50% resistance or higher in Polish states, the uprising can be started, but time this well as you can only complete this operation once. A well-timed uprising can shatter the German army and leave them short on supply as they attempt Operation Barbarossa.

Poland was also vital to assisting in decrypting the enigma machine, so they also gain access to the Mastermind Codebreaker advisor: Marian Rejewski.



The old Cyclometer and Bombe focuses have been moved into the espionage branch, but I noted that without any territory left, a bonus to atomic research was fairly useless to Poland. So, when the Atomic Research focus is done, Poland gains an offmap nuclear reactor that will give roughly one nuke per year... Try not to think too hard about it.

There were a lot of interesting alternate-history scenarios for Poland to explore and new possibilities came up during my research and implementation. Though I didn’t represent everything in game (such as the proposed Japan-Polish alliance), Poland is a treasure-trove of alternate history scenarios if only you can find a way to survive.

That’s all for this week, and that wraps up the two week Poland extravaganza!

Hello everybody and welcome to another dev diary for the upcoming Barbarossa patch and yet to be announced DLC. Today I’m going to be talking about the first focus tree which is a rework of Poland.

Poland was first added as a free DLC on release for everyone titled "United and Ready" so as such what you see in this diary will be free for everyone once Barbarossa drops. Next diary we will continue on to cover the DLC parts of the focus tree, because the tree is a bit too large to cover in one go. Enjoy!

Poland is interesting because it is a hugely popular minor (it's roughly as popular as Spain and more popular than Greece). Yet it has a very difficult position sandwiched between Soviet and Germany, which tend to scare people off. Perhaps it's the challenge, or its critical role in WW2, or just the large amount of Polish HOI4 fans, you tell me.



So, if we load up the tree we can see not only Ignacy Mościcki’s beautiful new portrait, but an entirely new tree.



Let’s start with the industrial branch. In the old tree, the player would have to dredge through a lot of low-value research bonuses to get just a few extra factories, so many of those old focuses have been expanded with extra factories and bonuses. But, this branch is not just about getting free factories, Poland is on a tight schedule and must use her time well if she has ambitions of outlasting the Reich.



Many industry focuses for Poland grant powerful but temporary bonuses towards consumer goods and construction speed so time the funding of your armement well to maximize the bonuses you’ll get.



Poland was a nation with many problems in 1936, and one such problem was that their rail networks were disparate and disconnected; largely due to the fact that Poland had only a few decades prior been part of three different nations. Among many problems this caused for Poland, it also disrupted their agricultural supply networks, which resulted in the Peasant’s Strike of 1937.



Beginning as mere whispers among the peasantry, if Poland fails to join the supply networks and enact major agricultural reform, they will be faced with a nasty peasant’s strike, damaging their stability, industry, and populace. Though on a tight schedule, Poland may pacify the countryside to delay this uprising, but until reform is enacted, the peasants will remain restless.




Failing to enact reform entirely will result in a massive populist uprising, and a civil war is the last thing Poland needs. If Poland is to survive the Reich and the USSR, she must be united and ready.



Moving on to another issue Poland had in the 30s; we have the Free City of Danzig! Danzig/Gdansk was in a unique and complicated position in this period. The city was simultaneously free and owned by no-one, an official Polish protectorate, and an international city partially run by the League of Nations. So representing Danzig/Gdansk as an on-map tag in 36 felt not quite right, so instead the city is demilitarized and Poland is incapable of accessing any of their factories, resources, or manpower.



When the Nazi party took power in the city, it strangled Polish trade, so Poland begins the game with the “Embargoed Economy” trade law, similar to Undisturbed Isolation in the US but not nearly as harsh. To remove the Embargoed Economy, Poland must either develop a new trade port in Gdynia, gain a new port through conquest, or clamp down on Danzig.




Attempting to seize control of Danzig will cause the city to begin a resistance, and Poland can fight that resistance through decisions and the usual resistance/compliance mechanics. With enough compliance, Poland will be able to ban the Nazi party and take permanent control of the city; ending the resistance, gaining access to all of Danzig’s resources, manpower, and industry, and finally being able to remove the embargoed economy.



Failing to bring Danzig under control will result in the city rising up against you and appearing as a tag on the map. Failing to stamp out this uprising in time will cause the city to defect to the Reich.



Failing to bring Danzig under control will result in the city rising up against you and appearing as a tag on the map. Failing to stamp out this uprising in time will cause the city to defect to the Reich.



Historically, Poland believed the USSR to be the greater threat and didn’t begin preparing Plan West until just two years before invasion. But, with the power of hindsight, the player can start either plan immediately after completing the Prepare for the Next War focus, and accumulate forts and construction bonuses along the border.



However, until Plan West has been completed, Plan East cannot be begun and vice versa, but when complete, no further focuses from the branch may be taken.



Finally, probably the part of the tree that has received the most love; the historical Polish political focus branch. Poland was not the united stable regime we had previously seen on release. Along with impending threats outside their borders, Poland was (like most dictatorships) plagued with infighting and factionalism.



The dictatorship was divided between the Castle lead by Ignacy Mościcki, the Sanation Right lead by Edward Rydz-Śmigły, and the Sanation Left led by Walery Sławek.



Each branch of the Sanation has a series of focuses that can be completed for various bonuses and the player does not have to commit to one faction or the other right away. Rather, you can form your government with a multitude of policies from each of the three factions, but the longer you spend forming your government, the less time you have for other things like industry and plans East and West.



Historical Poland will also have access to the April Constitution, the binding document of the Dictatorship. Though it begins weak, through collaboration with Sanations Left and Right, the Constitution will become a powerful bonus to Poland's politics. With all power consolidated in the President, you'll be able to change your laws and your cabinet with ease.



Time isn’t your only opponent here though, each of the two factions will expect Mościcki to appease them by enacting their policies and giving them power. Every focus of the Left you complete will make the Right more irritated and vice versa. On top of that, both factions will passively gain irritation over time so spend too long without taking a side and you risk losing both to civil wars.



Historically, Mościcki maintained control of the government until wartime, at which point it was agreed Śmigły would take control, but Poland failed to last long enough for this to take effect. However, if the player has appointed either Śmigły or Sławek as Chairman of Poland, the Sanation Right/Left can supercede the Castle and become the majority controller of the government. This enables some light alt-history within the historical branch, as well as unlocking new diplomatic options for Poland.



Available to all three factions of the dictatorship is the Align With the West branch, which allows Poland to join the Allies as they were able to in their old tree.



In the 30s, Lithuania was technically at war with Poland until the 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania in which Poland demanded an end to the cold war over Vilnius. As well as being able to gain cooperation and eventually an alliance with Lithuania, Poland may also demand Lithuania’s annexation which can result in occupying Lithuania without the need for war, but take this focus with caution as it extends your frontline with the Axis.



Also, the Romanian Bridgehead Strategy has now been moved to the diplomatic branch and allows Poland to bring Romania into the allies. Historically, Poland and Lithuania had an alliance prior to the war, and Poland can pursue this alliance closer, bringing Romanian guns to the Polish front.



The Sanation Right exclusively has access to Polish Revanchism which has now been expanded into its own full branch. As well as being able to demand the annexation of Lithuania, the Right can pursue both a restored Commonwealth and fulfil the ambition of the Polish–Czechoslovak confederation.



Lastly, the Sanation Left has access to an expanded Baltic Alliance path, allowing them to gain alliances with the Baltic states, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, and unlocking the newly expanded Between the Seas branch!


(It's worth mentioning at this point that most focus icons are placeholder)

No matter which path Poland is pursuing, as long as Poland is not in a faction already, they will be able to realize the Intermarium ambition and create an alliance from sea-to-sea! All they need to do is be considered a major or be a faction leader already, and have a large army. At this point, Poland can be considered a real contender for a major alliance of their own.



The old Between Seas focus was not really “between seas” so much as it was just a Baltic alliance, but now the first nation to be invited to the faction is Romania. After Romania has made their decision, the alliance can spread any direction; north into Scandinavia and the Baltics, and south into the Balkans. Though unlikely, an Italian alliance is not out of the question for Poland here, but some significant change in policy for either nation would be necessary to tempt the Italians away from the Axis.


Read the article here: https://pdxint.at/2OL91QS

Join the teams of Crusader Kings III, Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron IV and Stellaris for the largest event this side of PDXCON Remixed. In a tale that takes us from 867A.D to the distant future, you, the Paradox Community, will have a deciding say on events that unfold!

Acting as our ‘Senate’, you can influence how each campaign unfolds. Want to see a more military focused nation, or one that values the power of diplomacy or trade? By debating and voting inside the Senate, you can shape the course of our nation through all four grand strategy games.

You can take your seat in the senate by heading over to the discord here: https://discord.gg/pdxcon

Each leg of the journey will also have a knock on effect on the next, crafting a completely unique gamestate by the time we reach our Stellaris endgame. You have the power to not only shape history, but the universe!

The Event will be broadcast live on the Paradox Interactive Twitch Channel at the times below.

1. Crusader Kings III: 21st April 12:00-22:00 CEST
   
2. Europa Universalis IV: 28th April 12:00-22:00 CEST
   
3. Hearts of Iron IV: 7th May 12:00 - 22:00 CEST
   
4. Stellaris: 15th-16th May 12:00 - 20:00 CEST
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(Reposted from yesterday due to an error)

Hi everyone and welcome back to regular weekly dev diaries (if you don't count the april fools one last week). I know you are all super excited to hear what we have been up to since Battle for the Bosporus. The answers to that are going to take a few dev diaries to cover, so I figured I would start with a timeline for you:

• We recently released 1.10.4 to fix various multiplayer exploits going on, but seems an important case was not detected at the time so we are working on a 1.10.5 to address that soon.
  
• Pdxcon is coming up in May so expect to hear some more details there.
  
• The yearly anniversary is coming in June so expect some cool stuff and a patch.
  
• We are however spending most of our time on the 1.11 Barbarossa update as well as the unannounced expansion that will be released together with it. That's what we will spend most of our diaries on, as well as today!

‘Barbarossa’ and the unannounced DLC will focus on the Eastern Front and the core of Hearts of Iron, which is warfare - particularly land warfare. Historically the Eastern Front was without doubt the most important front for World War II. It was the largest confrontation in history and
is where Hitler’s expansion was first stopped and pushed back signaling the eventual doom of the axis powers. There are several areas we want to improve here. Weather does not feel impactful enough, while historically it had a massive impact. Logistics currently doesn’t have much player interaction and is mostly something you have to deal with only when problems appear, and finally the combat and division meta has been stable (with an emphasis on large divisions) for a long time - something we hope we can shake up. As you can imagine, these are all things that affect the game on a deeper level and take a lot of work to get right.

Today, I’ll give you guys a bit of an overview on the supply aspect, but fair warning: it’s early days and stuff may still change here before we’re done. I’ll probably spend 3+ diaries on supply over the course of the development to cover everything, but I figured it would be nice to hear about the overarching ideas.

The old system worked by having discrete supply areas pathing back to the players capital and keeping track of the bottlenecks. To simplify a bit ;) - those bottlenecks then decided how many units could fit into areas near the front without penalties. The areas themselves were unintuitive to players and required you to check multiple mapmodes to see if you stepped over an edge etc. I do like bottleneck systems though, because feedback is usually immediate, but it suffered from not having much scaling cost as distances increased, so it was hard to use it to limit snowballing. As I mentioned it was also a system you didn't care too much about until you had problems, while historically, logistics was a vital part of planning a campaign. This led to combining the issue with another gripe of ours - that the way fronts moved in WW2 often followed important railroads, but don't really in HOI4. We came to the conclusion that we should try and make a system focused on railways and with a truck based component as a way to get more out of it when away from the rails.



In our new system, supply flows from the capital (the total amount available depends on your total industrial base) through railways, where the level of the railway acts as a bottleneck. To transport more, you need a higher level railway (or a bigger port if it goes over water) so the railways are the current bottlenecks in a way. Depending on how much supply is transported you need a certain amount of trains for the rails to perform. Trains are a new equipment type that we will dig into in a future diary (well actually, several types ;P)

An important part of railways is that they are capturable, so as you push into enemy territory you will want to make sure to hold vital railways and capture railway hubs to supply your troops. There is a conversion time here to model the fact that there was usually some repair or re-gauging that needed to happen for attackers.



Mapmodes are still quite WIP ;)

Rivers also had a huge importance on the eastern front for transport and supply so they will work essentially like basic railroads now, where you need to control both sides of their banks to use them to ship supplies around.



Supply is drawn from what we call Supply Hubs now, which are either cities, naval bases, or manually constructed stations along the rails, which have to be linked into the network. Air supply works a bit differently but we will talk about this in the future along with some other supply additions...

The flow of supply from a Hub to a division depends on the terrain/weather etc, and ideally you want to have available trucks here (which is to say, motorized equipment) to increase the amount of supply you get as well as range. Cost of trucks and trains and losses to attrition and bad weather will be a limiting factor on your logistics.



Overall, this creates a system where it's strategically sound to fight over railways, prepare for large offensives, to try and bleed each other's logistics capability and to force care when advancing in bad terrain and weather. The result is a much more fun, historical and immersive Eastern Front as well as adding a new layer of invasion planning in the rest of the world.

See you all next week for the next diary!

You can find the forum post here: https://pdxint.at/3dQGUZk

Hello everyone!

So this is a first for me, my brand own dev diary! Well... in fact, I am in a bit of an odd situation. I fell asleep one day in the office about a year ago and no one came in the next morning. The building was put in lockdown during COVID so I haven’t been able to get out and I cannot contact anyone from the team.

I am running low on cash and the only way I can afford to eat is by having uber eats delivered takeout via drones, so I need you to buy this otherwise I have to resort to hunting spiders in the office.

First of a bit of a backstory since this might come as a surprise for some of you, it sure did for me. At first I thought it was a data anomaly but I have to finally admit...that it's not.

Ever since Malta was introduced as a playable nation in MtG we have seen a steady increase in players who are real hardcore about playing the island state. In fact most of you reading this are, 84% in fact.



Why are you all so crazy about Malta? I have no idea and I am no data guy but to me this signal is pretty clear and I can no longer ignore it. As such I have decided to completely shift gear from our 5 year plan to a huge Malta focus tree. You heard it right here folks, I am finally delivering what you want and no longer will you be bound by your shackles of torment!

Obviously I cannot detail everything in one single dev diary. I need to hurry up to check out my spider traps for food, but there are some new unique features that are implemented specifically for Malta, so broad strokes will be covered in this diary, with more in depth path walkthroughs next time!


Malta now begins as a proper colony of the UK ingame instead of being annexed by them. While the domestic industry will be limited by physical size the country can establish shipping lanes between other countries which trades sandstone. This was a brilliant invention of mine where I realized that Malta was pretty much completely void of industry and needed something that everyone wanted!



Everyone? Yup, to make sure Malta gets the proper starting economy every construction and building you make now will require sandstone, which you have a monopoly on. It will therefore be very important to establish close ties with Malta, or your industry will hit a (sand) stone wall.

As more shipping lanes are established and countries buy more of your sandstone you get IC output in return. More sandstone can be mined via events, focuses, decisions and by scuttling your own houses to mine their stone, at the cost of taking a stability hit.

Beware though, if you push your trade routes to everyone at once too fast you risk getting the worst malus of all, tourists. They will arrive in great hordes and block your island, making deploying divisions impossible, and slowly erode all your precious sandstone as they walk around to take in the island’s sights.



With the power of blockchain technology and adaptive AI I have tied the amount of tourists arriving to real world tourism data, so you better get all achievements before summer!

As you know, Malta has limited land resources and while land reclamation is possible it is quite expensive to do so. Luckily we have the solution - instead of building horizontally we are building vertically!

Malta will be able to build several different levels of its country, like a skyscraper. Every level has a set amount of construction slots allotted to them and the player can construct buildings in these slots using the IC gained from the precious sandstone trade. Every new level also requires more and more sandstone, so the player will need to balance foreign trade and plopping another piece of tower onto the Maltese masterpiece.


Graphical representation of Malta getting its first layer of new ground

Every level also has a special set of focuses, and I am very proud to let you know that every level up until level 3000 has a unique set of focuses. After that, every level has a randomly generated set of focuses up until int.max (2,147,483,647). If anyone ever reaches that level I know that you are cheating and the game will therefore erase your system32 folder.

As you build more and more levels the lower levels become impossible to bomb by the enemy, as it is protected by the level above it, like a roof.




Of course it gradually becomes harder and harder to build vertically, so every new set of focuses completed will take more and more sandstone.
I hope that this will please all of you that like to hunt achievements, eventually you will be able to literally have enough levels to reach the moon! (yes I did the math on how many levels you would need to reach it)


Some of you will gain quite a wealth via the sandstone trade. If you reach a certain threshold before the fall of France you will be given the opportunity to straight out buy the French fleet instead of it being sunk and scuttled.

This unlocks the first alt-history branch, as you are now a minor powerhouse and with your newly gained armada you will get the choice to transcend into what every HoI player has ever wanted - a pirate state!

A pirate state is a new type of country in which you will transcend beyond the confinement of merely existing as a country with borders and cities, you are now a ruler of the high seas.

Your fleet now serves as your main hubs of recruiting, building and handling politics. Even if the enemy should capture Malta itself you will not capitulate. Instead your capitulation is tied to the brethren court.



Your admirals are now part of this brethren court, with each admiral of your navy serving as a military leader. If all ships in their task force get completely destroyed, you lose the game and capitulate. You can no longer change the admirals of your navy, and naval composition is done automatically depending on the whims of the court itself and the traits of the brethren (A brethren with a submarine fanatic trait will only use submarines for example).

Here you can see your specific brethrens traits, how much loyalty they have towards you, how much loot they have and you can even build some industry that travels with your ships. You can also transport divisions in these task forces which act as raiders if they are close to land.

While you can no longer edit your fleets, every year the brethren court meets in a secret location. If one court member fails to attend in time he or she can be ousted by another one of your admirals, which can lead to wide scale mutinies.

Here you can use saved loot to bribe other leaders of your court to reshuffle ships, oust brethrens or create new task forces if need be.

As corsairs you capture ships instead of destroying them in combat. When you would normally enter a “naval battle” you now enter a “boarding battle” where your crew tries to capture the enemy ships. If you have diver divisions you can also try and capture submarines.

If a crew's loyalty drops below a certain threshold they will rebel and take a part of the fleet away and form their own pirate coven .This uses a very complex algorithm designed by me which follows
no loot -> :( = mutiny

So hi everyone, this diary is something that actually alerted us to CraniumMuppet being locked into the office. When we found him he was passed out under a desk where he seemed to have created some kind of weird court with the local wildlife. He seems a bit confused and groggy but should make a full recovery.


An accurate representation of the office when we found CraniumMuppet


You can read the full article here: https://pdxint.at/39AzaJk

Join Community Manager Josh in our latest weekly stream series! Whether you're a novice or a returning player, this could be the perfect series for you!

In this series we'll explain how to play Germany in single player, with a focus on tips, tricks, what to dos and explaining mechanics! Stuck on a certain aspect of the game? Join us in Twitch chat to ask your questions live!

This series is perfect for those of you wishing to finally take a dive into the Hearts of Iron experience, or for those of you who just want to chill and watch a World War unfold!

This series streams weekly on Wednesdays at 1:30pm CET over on the Paradox Interactive Twitch Channel

Set a reminder to tune in to the stream over on the right!

If you missed it, Catch week one of Introduction to Germany here: Week One

Midweek Madness is upon us!

Along with this week's Multiplayer Event, we've got a variety of deals and discounts for you to sink your teeth into.



First up, Battle for the Bosporus is on sale for the very first time! We've got a discount of -33% on our latest country pack.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1348660/Expansion__Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Battle_for_the_Bosporus/



But we're not done there- if you've got a friend who you'd like to get into playing Hearts of Iron now is the perfect time- the base game is absolutely free to play for a limited time!

If your recruited friend likes what they see, they can pick the base game up for a whopping -75% off!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/394360/Hearts_of_Iron_IV/



And if that really wasn't enough, we've also got -50% discounts on every other Hearts of Iron IV expansion

All of this is live until March 12, so dive right in!



Remember as well to tune in to our Masters of the Mediterranean multiplayer event tomorrow, 1800-2200 CET, live on our twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/394360/view/3035961090223292808

Rome. Egypt. Byzantium. The Mediterranean has known many masters. Now the great powers of the atomic age look to seize this jewel for themselves.

Join the Hearts of Iron team for a multiplayer clash over who can call themselves truly 'the Masters of the Mediterranean'.

We'll be live 1800-2200 CET on the 10th and 11th March over on our twitch, bringing you all the action as it happens. Make sure you set a reminder for the stream with the button on the right!

In this two-day event, a team of Content Creators will attempt to defend their Mediterranean powerbase at all costs.

Challenging them will be Hearts of Iron developers, coming at them from all corners of the world as some of the most powerful nations.



Spearheading the 'Mediterranean Entente' will be:

Bokoen - Portugal

Mordred Viking - Greece

dankus_memecus - Turkey

Feedback Gaming - Spain

Alex the Rambler - Bulgaria




Pitted against them are the Major Powers, determined to see the Mediterranean as their own 'Mare Nostrum'.

Daniel (Senior QA) - Imperial Germany

Robert (Game Designer) - Japan

Drikus (Content Design Lead) - Kings Party United Kingdom

Olle (Programmer) - Trotsky's Soviet Union



Victory in this contest will be determined by the control of certain 'Super Victory Points'; strategic areas considered vital to control of the Mediterranean and her sea lanes.

Each state highlighted above has been given a points value - and whoever controls the most at the end of the two-day event will take home the title of 'Masters of the Mediterranean'.



We'll be casting the event live on our twitch channel, hosted by Count Cristo and our very own Community Manager Josh.

You can watch the event live at 1800-2200 on 10 + 11 March at https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

We look forward to seeing you there!

Join us once again on Wednesday for another episode of 'I Swear I'm Not a Byzantophile!'

Having overrun Romania but, inadvertently given parts of Greece to Bulgaria, Josh and Daniel will be looking to take the fight to the major powers in their quest to paint the map purple.

Join us at 13:30 CET tomorrow, Wednesday 10th February over on our twitch

Remember, you can set a reminder in steam with the button on the right.