We finally announced the name of the next expansion at PdxCon! (I accidentally wrote it on twitter last week but apparently nobody had time to spot that hehe). No Step Back will launch together with the 1.11 Barbarossa update and the mission statement is to focus on Soviet, the eastern front and refreshing land warfare and logistics!
This is a huge undertaking that changes a lot of key components of the game, especially the AI. This has been a major reason for waiting with Soviet. We needed to build up both ai stability and get a new partisan system in place and have time to rework supply etc etc, so its the culmination of a long plan towards this goal and its nice to see it coming together.

No Step Back - Teaser Trailer

This wasn’t a full reveal - we will be showing off and announcing more features as the dev diaries come online. We also showed some more up to date visuals on the ongoing work on the (wip) supply system:



There will be some more in depth looks on this again. We are currently working on how motorization functions as part of it but it's roughly as presented before with a focus on connecting supply hubs using railways and convoys to project supply, with motorization improving the process. The mapmode is starting to really come around and is much easier to play with compared to the one we showed in the initial early look diary (just don't look too close on the red - lack of supply color above, I grabbed it from a bug report where stuff was intentionally made extra bad for those units to test… but I felt it showed off the state well).


placeholder train graphics as our proper models aren't in the game just yet, but doesn't it look cozy? :)

We also teased some pictures of the railways and trains, as well as confirming that there will be railway guns as a new unit type. They function a lot like naval bombardment support and are intended to help break tough defended positions (probably cities/railway hubs). More on those in a dedicated train porn diary in the future :p




Soviet tree wise we do not wanna show off too much yet. It will have its dedicated diaries (plural) and its one of our more ambitions trees yet, both in size and in player choices. Soviet is after Germany the nation thats most important to get right for a ww2 game, and compared to Germany a lot more complex. Here is a little teaser (are those icons placeholder or is it a shaved marx?), feel free to speculate what choices hide outside the screen...


(yes I know center is on the left. Trust me it makes sense. You are crazy I am not crazy!)


Let's start off with some yearly statistics updates!

We keep trending up on active players. This year’s record peak was 899k players in a month which is crazy!



Majors vs Minor nation picking keeps slowly converging towards an even split:


Modding wise here are the latest numbers for the biggest total conversion mods:

• Road to 56 - 10%
  
• Kaiserreich - 6%
  
• Millenium Dawn - 3%
  
• The New Order - 2.9%
  
• Old World Blues - 2.2%
  
• The Great War - 2.2%
  
• Cold War: Iron Curtain - 1.2%

We also talked about the future of Hearts of Iron after No Step Back and onwards, because we don't plan to stop any time soon on expanding the game.

• Yes, we will be reworking Italy in the future :)
  
• As games get older the harder it is to do large paid mechanics changes and HOI is starting to approach that stage now. Our current thoughts (that could totally change) is to focus more towards smaller DLCs like country packs, patches and free updates long term as this lets us focus on whats best for the game and get more flavor in.
  
• Speaking of country packs. Battle for Bosporus or Death or Dishonor is what we are thinking here. We want to focus on themes and specific regions here. At the moment the top contenders we think about are Scandinavia, Middle East and South America (so big its maybe two though), but we got more ideas. Game development is hard and no plan truly survives contact with the enemy etc so we will see, but this is our intent :)
  
• With a more focus on content and free updating we will be able to tackle big pain points like peace conferences as well is our goal.
  
• We also want to try and help onboarding for new players. HOI4 is a hugely complex game and the tutorial is really not what it could with. But we also have other improvement ideas here.

To be clear, none of this is promises because plans change, and I cant say exactly when these things happen - my goal is to keep you in the loop with how we think about things :)

If you want to watch the pdxcon panel here are some bookmarks to the twitch stream (I am told there will be youtube clips available in the future too):

• HOI4 Panel start
  
• NSB Talk
  
• Future
  

We have some cool team stuff happening, I will hand over the mic to @Arheo


Greetings all! Fresh from the Elysian fields, several of us previously from the Imperator: Rome team have swapped our gladii for KV-1s and have integrated with team HOI to create the ultimate combined arms, bear mounted (..thanks, Dan) division.

On a personal note, I’m thrilled to be joining HOI - it remains one of my all-time PDS favorites. The opportunity to give so much attention to such a short yet critical period of history is rarely afforded elsewhere. I have a great interest in the simulation of socio-political/economic causality behind the global narrative HOI provides, but find myself most at home micromanaging an ever-diminishing frontline in Russia… now with trains.

The ex-Imperator folks bring with them a wealth of knowledge which I’m certain can be put to good use here - we have spent a long time reacting, consulting, and working with our community to build a better game - something which I look forward to doing with the passionate fans of the HoI community as well.
Hi, I'm @Birken . I'm the technical director of Studio Gold and have been with Paradox since the release of Hearts of Iron III.
We're expanding the programming department in Studio Gold to better support the development of Hearts of Iron and future projects. Right now I'm looking for a Manager to help me develop our department as well as programmers that want to work with us to keep on building on Hearts of Iron and other GsG titles.
Please checkout the following job ads if you think it could be something for you.

Programmer Manager
Game Programmer
Senior Game Programmer

Read the full article here: https://pdxint.at/2QTrvjn

Hearts of Iron team members Drikus Kuiper • Content Design Lead - PDS, Daniel Sjöberg • Senior QA - PDS & Josh Bassett • Community Manager have attempted 'The Spanish Gambit' - win the Spanish Civil War in as few days as possible as the Republicans.


Think you can do better?

Head over to the PDXCON discord and submit your attempts on the PDXCON discord and assign yourself the HOI role!

We'll see you there: http://discord.gg/pdxcon

I would like to open up by showing the state rework I neglected to show last week, so here they are! The new Baltic States'... states.




Starting with Estonia, we have two starting focuses: Rally the Nation or the Era of Silence. Historically, the Era of Silence was a time in Estonian history where Konstantin Päts suspended all elections in Estonia out of fear of the fascist Vaps Movement.



While going down this path, the Vaps will gradually grow more and more agitated, and the player must use a series of focuses and decisions to prevent the nation from fracturing into a civil war. Once the Vaps are dealt with, Päts stands ready to prepare the nation for the inevitable wars to come.



A banker and economist, Päts has access to some powerful bonuses to the Estonian economy and internal stability.



Since his dictatorship was underpinned by the fear of fascists and communists, the threat both pose must be pushed into irrelevancy if an Estonian player wishes to restore democracy in their nation.



However, the dictatorship can be maintained by pushing not only communism and fascism into irrelevancy, but also democratic support.


Rally the Nation has the player take control of the Vaps in a series of decisions much similar to Britain’s fascist marches, whereby the Vaps must rally public support for their movement and overthrow the government. This culminates in a march on Tallinn and taking over in a civil war.



From here, it’s a race against time to bolster the military and ready the nation for war. As a movement made mostly of veteran’s societies, the Vaps have access to some powerful military bonuses and free units.



On top of that, the Vaps held close connections to the far-right veterans in Finland and as such, once they have taken over Estonia, they stand ready to give official support to the Finns to do the same in their own country by organizing marches through Finland.



Once this is done, Estonia is at a crossroads for where her identity lies. She may lean into her Scandinavian identity and conquer the Nordic countries, or she may lean into the Finno-Ugric identity and prepare for a war against Russia.



If Estonia successfully conquers the Nordics and completes the “Estonia is Scandinavia” focus, she will gain access to the old Nordic League decision from Waking the Tiger.



Leaning into the Ugric identity however will allow Estonia to form the new Empire of Finno-Ugra out of the Finnic identities living in Scandinavia and Russia.



*****************************************************

Next up we have Latvia’s political focus, beginning with Kārlis Ulmanis’ historical decision to suspend the constitution of Latvia.



The focus tree is split into the military and civilian governments, which may or may not merge into one depending on your choices.



Historically, Ulmanis assigned the marshal of Latvia to be his Prime Minister, replacing Kviesis of the Farmer’s Party. Choosing to do so will allow the player to vastly improve their military industry.



Marshal Balodis became so influential in Latvia that many believed the nation to be a diarchy between Ulmanis and Balodis, despite this not being the case. However, the player will be able to make this perception a reality and establish Balodis as dictator of Latvia, rather than keep Ulmanis’ rule.



Instead of assigning Balodis as PM, Ulmanis may also choose to renew Kviesis as prime-minister, adopting a more open attitude towards the former Saeima members, giving bonuses to the civilian economy.



Similar to the marshal branch, at the end here Ulmanis may either restore public elections and empower Fricis Menders, or he may integrate the Farmer’s Party into his own; strengthening the dictatorship.



Next we have the military side of the Latvian government. Latvia may choose to either suppress the fascist Thunder Cross movement, or collaborate with them.



Suppressing them will allow Latvia to empower paramilitaries and organizations more aligned with the government, such as the Aizsargi, eventually allowing women to serve in the Women’s Aizsargi.



Unlike Estonia, Latvia has the ability to court the fascist Pērkonkrusts group without having them take over the government. However, this is a delicate balancing act because if the Pērkonkrusts grow too powerful too quickly, Latvia will be split into a civil war, so collaborate with them with caution.



If the player can keep the Pērkonkrusts in check for long enough, they can complete the “Anti-German Propaganda” focus, pacifying the Pērkonkrusts for good while utilising their bonuses.



However, Latvia may also have the Pērkonkrusts supercede Ulmanis’ government and take over the nation peacefully, unlocking powerful focuses to help them conquer the Baltics.




On top of that, Gustavs Celmiņš viewed Christianity as a weak and foreign religion, and instead stated that Dievturība neopaganism be adopted as Latvia’s state religion. If the player goes anti-German, the Dievturība national spirit is upgraded as you progress down your fascist focus branches, eventually becoming quite a powerful boon to your nation.



Going pro-German however will allow Latvia to adopt the mantle of RK-Ostland, serving their German masters by occupying the Baltics and Belarus.



*****************************************************

Lastly, we have Lithuania’s national focus tree, and similar to Latvia’s, most everything is interconnected.



Just like Latvia, Smetona can choose to appoint either a military prime minister as they did historically, or assign Vladas Mironas, a priest turned politician.



No matter which they choose, Lithuania must fulfil Smetona’s ambition of empowering the Presidency and elevating the President above party politics. What this will mean for a Lithuanian player is that party popularity will have no impact at all on the nation’s stability, and they will instead gain a flat amount of stability as a base.



Over on the right here we have some of Lithuania’s external politics. Lithuania may attempt to seek peace and eventually mutual guarantees with their old enemies in Poland, or they may sign the Soviet Mutual Assistance pact, ensuring that Vilnius be returned to Lithuania upon completion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.



Lithuania may also center their politics by suppressing communist and fascist supporters in their nation, eventually allowing them to focus their efforts on their true enemy, be that Germany or the USSR.



Over on the left, we have focuses for dealing with Augustinas Voldemaras. Voldemaras was once Smetona’s Prime Minister, but in 1936 the Iron Wolf leader was in a Lithuanian prison. Lithuania may exile him, granting access to their usual political focuses, or free him, allowing the nation to slowly turn to fascism.



In the fascist branch of the Lithuanian tree, Lithuania is able to go on a war-path to restore the old borders of Greater Lithuania. Opposing the Germans will also allow Lithuania to lay claim to “Lower Lithuania”, AKA Königsberg.



A fascist Lithuania that manages to either occupy Poland or align them will be able to restore things to the way they once were: with a large dominant Lithuania and a small submissive Poland on their border.



But Lithuania does not have to assign a Prime Minister at all. A fourth option is open to Smetona, and that is inviting the son of the duly elected King of Lithuania: Mindaugas III.



And here we have the beautiful Karl Gero von Urach portrait I teased in last week's diary! Big thank you to @Indyclone77 for sourcing the reference picture from the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg for us!



Should Lithuania choose to elect a king, the player will gain access to the same claiming mini-game as Poland but inverted, allowing for a Commonwealth in which Lithuania is the senior partner.



Should both Poland and Lithuania choose to go monarchist, the two nations will be allowed to decide how they wish to move forward. They may reject the other and go to war, or they may unite into a Commonwealth faction and stand as friends.

*****************************************************

There are also a number of shared focuses in the unique branches as well.

Any Baltic State may choose to form the Baltic Entente faction, and if they become democratic, they may also turn this alliance into an economic union. By completing focuses to draw the states closer together, the democratic Baltic state may be able to unite people of the region into one nation



Similar to Poland, all three Baltic states have a small exiled government branch, granting them access to some offmap factories and weekly manpower.



The Baltics may also choose to do as they did historically: granting basing rights to either the Soviets or Germany, and eventually submitting to their occupation. Should the Baltics submit to Soviet occupation, they will switch to their shared communist branch.




Full Article: https://pdxint.at/3owsceA

The Baltic States were in a difficult position in the build-up to world war 2; only recently liberated from Russian and German rule and less than 20 years on from a bloody struggle against both imperialist powers. In the 30s, each of the states had established authoritarian rule in fear of German and Soviet invasions, and a player hoping to survive as a Baltic state must take some extreme measures to overcome these overwhelming odds...

The Baltic States, like the Chinese, will share some branches of their focus tree while other branches will be unique to each country. This week I am going to talk about the shared branches; the industrial branch and the communist political branch.



Starting up with the industrial branch, each Baltic state was in something of a similar situation economically; relying heavily on foreign investment and equipment for their industry and armed forces. As such, each Baltic state may decide if they wish to put their faith in the democratic nations to supply their economy, or the Axis powers to fuel the war machine.



The other common issue facing the Baltics was that they had previously been occupied by the Soviets and Germany, and their industry was sorely lacking. So, the Balts can attract workers to their capital and begin their rearmament and develop their research sector.



Lastly, by modernising their industry, the Baltic states may become much more self-sufficient and end their reliance on foreign powers to fuel their war machine. They may expand raw resource production in their nation, which for Estonia and Latvia means the development of their on-map resources.

Lithuania however was uniquely very reliant on its agriculture, and thus starts the game with a variant of the “Agrarian Society” national spirit which can be slowly turned into a great benefit via their industrial tree.



Next up, each of the Baltic States had recently endured bloody struggles against the USSR, so popular support for communism was vanishingly low. A Baltic state hoping to overthrow the government and establish an independent communist state must do so through war.



The Balts can either choose to rely on the Soviet intervention or attempt to reconcile relations with the Baltic lower classes and try to maintain their independence while establishing communism on their own.



Once the revolution is done and your nation is communist, the player will have the option to re-establish the Lithuania-Belarus SSR. In the case you sided with the Soviets, the USSR will grant you their half of Belarus with the rest coming either through war or the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.



If you are independent however, Belarus must be acquired through adversarial means. The Baltic state must propagandise support for unification in Belarus similar to the Spanish Civil War garrison control system. When time runs out, Belarus will be released and fight a civil war; the victor will be annexed into either the victorious Baltic nation or the USSR.



The Baltic nation will also be able to try to convert their neighbours to communism through a propaganda war. No matter which path the Baltic player takes to establish socialism across the Baltics; they will be able to form the United Baltic SSR.



From there, they may use their newfound strength against Scandinavia and Poland and achieve communism across the entire Baltic Sea.



That’s all for the Baltic States this week, next week I will be talking about the entirely unique political trees for each Baltic state.

******************************************************************

Something worth bringing up here is we did make some changes to the Polish tree since we last talked about it. Firstly, I do just want to show off some of the new focus icons we got since I wrote those dev diaries and I feel like our artists have done a really great job. There are more, but I don't want to spoil all of them just yet!

img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/813b8df0afcb3a3f28ee7bfa2d99be3dd753c2df.png[/img]

We originally planned to have Poland get an off-map reactor to essentially get them control of 1 nuke during play as an exile nation. This to reflect their role in the nuclear project, but we were already a bit on the fence on if this was too immersion breaking for the gameplay purpose, and it seemed many of you thought so too so we removed the off-map reactor and moved the focus to the industry branch.



Next, I managed to find time to implement Karl Albrecht von Habsburg as an option for monarchist Poland. He has his own branch which involves pressing the Habsburg claim on Czechoslovakia.





Claiming Czechoslovakia uses the same decision system as claiming Lithuania for the Commonwealth branch, and once the two nations are united, the ambition of West-Slavic unification is realised and the new nation may declare itself protector of the western Slavic peoples living in Germany.



Karl Albrecht I was known for the service he provided to the Polish army, and it’s unlikely that willingness to serve would vanish upon becoming King. So, as Soldier-King, he will gain a plethora of unique personality traits as well as becoming a field marshal.



With Hungary aligning itself with Poland’s enemies, Karl Albrecht can demand that Horthy step down in favour of Otto von Habsburg and force Hungary down their Habsburg path, diplomatically aligning them with Habsburg Poland.




Galicia-Lodomeria represented Habsburg rule over Poland and as such, Karl Albrecht may restore the Diet of Galicia which as well as giving the Royal Sejm national spirit, moves the nation’s capital to Krakow. While this centralises the capital between Poland and Czechoslovakia and surrounds the capital in defensible hills, the old Polish capital is also very close to the German border and may prove an easy target…



I feel I should also clarify the mechanics behind electing a monarch. When the Fulfil the 5th of November Act focus is complete, candidates come forward and present themselves to be King. So while it would make little sense for the regency council to reach out and invite candidates like Pavel Bermondt-Avalov to be King, Pavel is certainly the type to try and present himself for King.



The final thing I'd like to mention is that during testing we noticed that it was quite a chore to scroll back and forth between the Polish tree with it being so wide, so I implemented a system where the Polish tree automatically compacts itself when you've chosen a political path.






Read the full article: https://pdxint.at/3hse2JY

The story has unfolded and the Dual Monarchy stands at the precipice of a World War. In this modded, community built scenario a cast of Developers and Paradox Staff must lead our nation to victory in a world wide conflict!

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
[/b]

Hi everyone and welcome back to another dev diary! Today is about various changes that affect combat and units. With the Barbarossa update we want to shake up the meta a bit and also change a few stats and other aspects to make using the tank designer more interesting and rewarding.

For a long time now unit bonuses from high command have confused people. Most expect that they apply to battalions, when in fact they apply only if their target unit type was “the majority type”, which was basically a weighted type count. They also could overlap, so infantry, mountaineers and artillery would apply to the same units letting you stack stuff in ways that was never intended and quite unintuitive.



This system has now changed, and divisions get bonuses based on their composition, this is a straight up ratio based on the number of non-support battalions of each type, so a 2x artillery 3x infantry division will be 40% artillery 60% infantry.

Battalions are always classified as a single type for this (even though some are scripted with multiple types) based on this priority:
cavalry > armor > artillery > motorized > mechanized > infantry

The exceptions being rocket & special forces, which both act as an addition, so if the 3 infantry divisions in the example above were mountain units, then the division would also be 60% special forces and if the 2 artillery are nebelwerfers it'd also be 40% rocket.

When counting the battalions of armies (ie when we have an actual unit and not only a division template), battalions that lack equipment will count as less, so a Light Tank battalion with only half it's tanks will count as 0.5 battalions (and not count at all if without tanks). The total sum of the compositions will still end up 100% (unless every battalion is without equipment).


To make it easier to see this we now have an indicator in the division windows showing the breakdown.

As a part of our efforts to shake up the 40/20 width meta, we have made changes to the combat width of province terrain. Province widths now range from 75 to 96. Plains have a new base combat width of 90, while Mountains have a new combat width of 75. Most of these widths will not divide into each other easily, hopefully moving the ideal width away from multiples of 10.

Urban provinces are now the “widest” with a width of 96. But this does not mean they will be the easiest provinces to overwhelm. Mountains, marshes, and urban provinces now have reinforcement widths of ⅓ of province width instead of ½. This should hopefully give these provinces a slight defensive buff, while allowing us to open up pushing power in the more open tiles.



In conjunction with these changes, we have also been looking at reducing the overstacking penalty. We hope that this will alleviate some of the need to have divisions that are the perfect width for a given province. But at the same time, smaller countries should now be able to specialize their division width to suit their home terrain more appropriately.

Breakdown (numbers not final etc etc)

Plains

• Standard 90
  
• Reinforce 45

Desert

• Standard 90
  
• Reinforce 45

Forest

• Standard 84
  
• Reinforce 42

Jungle

• Standard 84
  
• Reinforce 42

Hills

• Standard 80
  
• Reinforce 40

Marsh

• Standard 78
  
• Reinforce 26

Urban

• Standard 96
  
• Reinforce.32

Mountain

• Standard 75
  
• Reinforce 25

One of the major things that make larger divisions like 40 width armor hit disproportionally harder than smaller ones is also how targeting and damage works inside combat in relation to the enemies defense. Essentially the larger divisions make more efficient use of concentrated damage as it punches through defense. To solve this we are doing a few things. First of all we are weighting the targeting towards wider divisions being more likely targets and also when picking targets to try and match it to have wider divisions spread damage over smaller rather than always concentrating it. They will probably still hit harder, but combined with width changes and other downsides of larger divisions it should make it less clear cut.
However, this part isn’t quite done yet though so I’ll cover it again in more detail in one of the “bag of tricks” diaries in the future when i see how it pans out, but I figured it needed to be mentioned now ;) That said though, to wet your appetites here is a little tease from a debug mapmode in development...




Currently the effects of having stronger armor than the enemy can pierce, or being able to pierce an enemies armor are binary and give fixed bonuses. This meant that there wasn't really any benefit to have more armor than you needed to stop the enemies piercing, and also that being a single point of piercing under enemy armor was just as bad as having no piercing. So things were quite binary. With the tank designer coming we wanted to make it feel like your investments in upgrades were always worth it, so we are changing armor and piercing to have more gradual effects.

Armor > Piercing

• Unit takes half damage (as it currently works)

Armor < Piercing and Amor > 0.75 * Piercing

• Take damage between half damage to normal damage by difference in value

Armor < 0.75 * Piercing

• The unit takes normal damage

Lets break this down with an example:

• A panzer division has an armor value of 52
  
• Its being attacked by an infantry division with some anti-tank guns. Their piercing is 60
  
• If this was the old system this armor would be worthless and not reduce damage at all
  
• Now because its close enough (between 60 and 45), so you get roughly half of the normal effect around 25% reduction of damage.

For the tank designer it was important that reliability was more impactful if it was to be a good tradeoff with other aspects of design, so we needed to change it up (lest @CraniumMuppets 0% reliability tank monsters would take over the world). Now it will not just affect rate of loss in attrition but various other aspects:

• Reliability affects losses from attrition like before
  
• Reliability now affects org regain when moving, and also makes any weather related org effects more impactful when low
  
• Lower reliability scales up all impacts from weather so if facing extreme weather a unit with low reliability equipment will suffer more of those weather effects
  
• At the end of combat units with better reliability will be able to get back a certain amount of tanks etc to simulate that simple more reliable constructions would work better for battlefield repair and be less fragile when taking damage. So it's a bit like capturing enemy equipment in combat - but in reverse :cool:

Our goal is that this creates interesting tradeoffs when designing equipment and will make you have to consider if its worth switching a strategy focused on speed and firepower towards reliability when operating in bad weather and tough areas like the Russian winter or in northern africa or jungles.

Oh, and I figured now might be a good time to point out that there will be a future diary on weather changes and other cool related stuff, so these changes aren't completely in isolation. But one step at a time :)

But before we go, a few words about the studio...

Hello everyone, my name is Thomas, but perhaps better known as @Besuchov here on the forums.

As you saw here we have recently reorganized ourselves a little, moving from a big centralized Stockholm studio to splitting ourselves into Red, Green and Gold. This is mainly an internal org shift to make sure we keep our growing organization firmly focused around making good games. You shouldn't notice too many differences in the short term, we are still PDS making GSG on the Clausewitz engine, but it does mean that we can align each studio to the particular games. Since you will hear the studio names every once in a while, I just wanted to say who I am and what the studio is responsible for.

My role is Studio Manager, which means I'm accountable for the long term success of Studio Gold and working with things like management, staffing, and long term plans. Studio Gold has as its main focus Hearts of Iron (but we may or may not have some secret other stuff as well). Directly making the games though, that's still the job of Podcat and the team, but I intend to do my best to create an environment where we have the best chances to make great games together.

For me this is coming full circle at Paradox. I started as a programmer in 2004 and one of my first tasks was to work on Hearts of Iron 2. Since then I've done various things including being lead programmer for Hearts of Iron 3 (and Victoria 2), Project Lead for EU4 and more recently Studio Manager for PDS. Next to EU, HOI is my favorite game and I'm delighted to be back in a place where I can focus on fewer games and where that game is Hearts of Iron. You will see more of me in the future even though I will mostly take a backseat to the team working on the game.


Read the full article here: https://pdxint.at/3vJu32o

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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