Hello everyone, it's again the time to give you a glimpse into the fun stuff we've been doing from the tech side. You know, in addition to implementing the new features. This time around, I (PDXen) got the honour to write the Dev Diary.

I'm gonna start off with some outdated news from the past: Did you know that we did a performance pass on Trial of Allegiance? I honestly hope that you didn't. Being a country pack, we never intended to improve the performance but we did make improvements to counter the influx of data that happens when we add more content.

But I know you don't want to listen to ramblings about the past. So let's get started on what we've done this time. While we've taken time to look at the performance and improve parts of it, we've also added some new generic features that we hope our modders will like.

I'm gonna be brutally honest with you from the start: The performance goal of this DLC was to not decay performance. (Un)fortunately, this doesn't mean we can lean back and ignore it. More content and new features all add to the computations we need to run and I wanted all the new stuff to happen at net-zero performance cost. Essentially, the same thing as for Trial of Allegiance, but with much more. So we had to do something to maintain the status quo with performance.

So whenever our performance tracking indicated a slowdown for the first time I took a look at what we could optimize and became a bit disheartened. The French Paradox did a very good job at parallelising much of our code for AAT. There were not many easy options for parallelisation left but we managed to identify a few places. Even on our machines with quite a lot of cores, this wasn’t enough so we took a step back and looked at optimizing the sequential parts of the code. I hope this is quite good news for all of us that run on hardware with fewer cores.

The hunt for optimization opportunities led to looking at old systems that now had more data and the uncharted lands of legacy code. I’m just gonna give you a few tidbits of old systems that we found interesting assumptions about the data in or simply interesting ways of solving it.

I imagine some of you have been with us from the start. Do you remember the size of the original focus trees? And for those of you who don't, simply open up the generic tree to get an idea. Over the years, we've had a large influx of focuses in the focus trees. For example, we have ~60 in the generic focus tree compared to the ~180 national focuses in Belgium, not counting the Belgian-Congo part. And the size of the Belgium focus tree doesn't even compare to the new German one (which is somewhere between 350 and 400 focuses).


The new German focus tree with 350-400 focuses, which I couldn’t even fit into a 2k screen.


The new Belgium focus tree with ~180 focuses.


The Haiti docs tree is using the generic focus tree with ~60 focuses

The size in itself is not that much of a problem since you generally don’t have the focus tree open at all times. However, we have a nifty functionality to bypass focus. Over time this function has taken more and more performance to run. Guess why? It checked every single focus in the game, every single time. At some point in time that might not have been an issue but with the size of the current focus trees? The good thing is that it’s not as bad anymore. We now only check the focus that has a remote chance of being bypassed.

When we started looking at the sequential parts of our parallel code we found a quite interesting trend. There's a lot of dynamic memory allocation. Now every time we do something that requires dynamic memory allocation, the operative system may grab a global lock. Essentially, risking the algorithm to become at least partially sequential. Finding this caused a period of going through the code and eliminating the worst of these dynamic memory allocations.

AAT was the expansion that optimized HoI4 (in modern times). Now there’s a drawback with the drastically improved performance: All the inefficiencies from the new systems in AAT were hidden by the drastic improvements in the rest of the game. A lot of old content was optimized by a large margin, and as a result new performance overhead simply got lost in the steadily improving numbers. For example, on my machine disabling the international market automation saved me 2ms per daily update. It’s not a lot (about 0.5% of the overall performance on my machine). But for market automation? Good news, it’s way less now. Bad news, you can still improve performance a very small amount by disabling it (though, manually clicking will have way worse performance in terms of speed).

Another hidden inefficiency that we’ve found is the increase in the number of equipment variants. Before, there was a very limited amount of equipment variants in a game but now, there’s a lot of them. Every single MIO update can create a multitude of different variants. And not to mention that International Market and Lend Lease pass these variants around in the game. Now throughout the code base, there are a lot of things that interact with equipment. Every interaction wasn’t adding much but all put together, that’s quite a bit. I won’t say that variants are free but please go ahead and add more, there should be less performance impact now than before at least.

Now let’s leave the area of performance and continue with some other things we’ve looked at from the tech side: New fancy modding stuff. During the development, I got a bit fed up with requests for support for new tooltips. So we sat down and thought: How can we get content developers to write the tooltips themselves? While we couldn't backport Jomini to HoI4, we took some inspiration and made it possible to write more complex tooltips in the GUI and script files.

If you have looked into our localization files before, you've probably noticed something like the following:


Traditionally, this meant that `REASON` was replaced with something that was provided by the game (i.e. not scripteD). In many cases, these variables were just replaced with some other localized string. So to avoid having to update the source code every time we wanted to change this, we introduced a new concept to the scripting language: Bound localization.

Bound localization simply allows you to bind variables to the localization from script. So instead of opening up the source code, we can now simply update the script files like the following:



The localization for the sort by name button injects the sort key from script to localization.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s recursive so you can do stuff like this if you want to:

Naturally, doing this was opening up Pandora's box with requests from some content developers so we continued a bit more to push the boundaries. For example, in the German focus tree we can find the following odd syntax:



The custom effect tooltip that shows the state modifiers for a dam with a custom indentation to fit this very specific tooltip.

This adds another new concept we introduced: localization formatters. Essentially, it allows you to get a localized text property of some static token (in this case then state modifiers for
the `dam` building). You’ll recognize a text formatter when you see a localization key that has the format `<formatter>|<token>`. Some of the formatters also take some parameters (such as the `INDENT` in the example above). The benefit of using these over new tooltip overrides for effects or triggers is that the localization formatters are usable in every place a bound localization is usable (some might require that it’s localized with some context but that should be documented).

One of the main drawbacks with the new things we add, is that you can in general only use it in specific places that is pointed out from source code. Unfortunately, this still holds for the new stuff but the goal was for fewer requests for tooltips so we made some effort to make it a bit more usable. For example, you can use this in the very much (ab)used `custom_effect_tooltip` effect, `custom_trigger_tooltip` trigger as well as in some of the new places (see for example, the building database). But the main thing is that we added support for this in GUI files.

All our GUItypes now support the new tooltip `bound_tooltip` construct. If you use this, then you'll be able to use the bound localization. And maybe more interesting is the `context_aware_tooltip` construct that is a bound localization but it will be localized with a context so you can use contextual localization. Unfortunately, this requires us to provide the context from the source so mostly new places support this (and we try to document it in the GUI files, when and where it is supported). Note that this is recursive so if a parent object is localized with a context, then all children objects will be localized with the same context.

We'll come back to this in a short while when digging into the tech behind the new inner circle GUI in the focus tree.

Imagine that you have a province or state that, depending on who you ask, has a different name. For techs, equipment and a lot of other things we’ve had the support to add country specific names (we call it cosmetic tags) by simply adding the countries tag before the name of it. Now we’ve added the same support to province and state names as well.

We can take Turku as an example, this Finish area has both a Finish and a Swedish name (Turku being the name in Finish and Åbo is the name in Swedish). Before we had quite some script to change the name of the state depending on its owner but now we simply have to prefix the name with the correct country tag in the localization file:



The state of Turku (i.e. Finland owns the state).


The state of Åbo (i.e. Sweden owns the state).

More national focus means more fun, right? But at some point it just becomes hard to navigate the focus tree. Fear not, we’ve added an option to add navigation shortcuts to focus trees. The new German tree has 6 different navigation icons (as of me writing this).


The focus navigation tabs for the new German tree.

If we click for example the “Economy” navigation tab, then we’ll be moved to the economy section of the tree with a nice zoom level for it. Naturally, this is completely scriptable so you can modify the focus trees to your liking for your mods.

You've probably seen the Inner Circle GUI in another Dev Diary by now, but did you know that the whole GUI is written in script, and it doesn’t contain a single scripted GUI window? The inner circle is the first usage of what we call focus inlay window. A focus inlay window is, similar to the continuous focus window, a GUI object that is drawn inside the focus tree view..

Let’s go through an example: We want to display all the potential members of the Nordic Defence Council and if they have joined. For some reason it’s also very critical for us that we show the leaders of the countries. Something like the following:


A focus inlay window to show the potential members of The Nordic Defense Council with access to the joint focus tree.

When defining a new inlay window, there's three main components that you need to implement: The inlay window definition; the GUI definition; and add it to the focus tree(s) it should be shown. Let's start with the completely new construct, the inlay window definition.

As for most components in HoI4 different databases have different folders and so has this. The inlay windows are located in the `game/common/focus_inlay_windows/` and we can throw up the first definition of the inlay window as follows:


This is actually a minimum working example for a focus inlay window definition. We've now a new inlay window with ID `nordic_alliance_inlay_window` that points to a container window named `nordic_alliance_ui_window`. Let's continue with adding more stuff to this later on and continue with the GUI itself.


The GUI components aren't anything new, but I've thrown in some of the new localization capabilities to give you an example. Since all focus inlay windows are localised with the focus tree country as the context, we're free to use all the new fancy stuff when writing the localization. We have one `context_aware_text` that uses the contextual localization to grab the faction name. Another that uses bound localization to localise `NORDIC_COUNCIL_MEMBER` with the parameters `IN_FACTION` and `COUNTRY` with the result from localising `[SWE.NordicCouncilMemberInFaction]` and `[SWE.GetNameWithFlag]`, respectively. I’ve also thrown in a `context_aware_tooltip` to get the name of the leader when hovering over the portrait.

While we're at it, we can complete the localization by adding the following scripted localization to the game (in `game/common/scripted_localisation`):


And add the localization key `NORDIC_COUNCIL_MEMBER` to a loc file:

With the localization done we only need to fix the portraits of the country leaders. Defining dynamic images for focus inlay windows is done in the focus inlay window definition:


The `scripted_images` entry contains a list of image definitions that will be used in the focus inlay window. In this case, the icon named `Sweden` will have its image replaced with `GFX_portrait_SWE_per_albin_hansson` if Swedens’ current country leader is `SWE_per_albin_hansson`. If this doesn’t hold, then the next entry in `Sweden` will be checked and so on until something that evaluates to true is encountered. The last entry in this example (`GFX_blank_leader_portrait`) always evaluates to true and is therefore the default image if no other is true.

Now there’s only some final touches to be made. Firstly, we’ll restrict the inlay window to only be shown if the country has formed (or joined) a Nordic joint alliance (i.e. has completed the `NORDIC_form_joint_alliance`. Secondly, we’ll set the window to only be visible to the country owning the focus tree (so no other player can view it).


That’s it, really. We’ve now completely defined a focus inlay window. All that remains to do is to add it to the relevant focus trees:


I really look forward to seeing all the cool stuff you can come up with the focus inlay windows. And I hope you all enjoy the new modding constructs.

Happy modding!



Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1

Hallo, wie geht es dir?



Stay tuned for tomorrow, Thursday November 7th, that there will be a Dev AMA over on Reddit!

Paradox_Danne here one last time to guide you through the final German Dev Diary before Götterdämmerung drops and you can experience all of this first hand. Buckle up, because today we’re diving into German alt-history! Before we get started though, let’s have one last look at the old German Focus Tree and then compare it with the new one.

The Old German Focus Tree has served us well over the years

But it’s time to let a new German Tree sprout

As you can see, the new German Focus Tree is something of a behemoth and by far the largest Tree in the game. If you’ve read the previous two Dev Diaries about the Historical branches and the German systems (if not, stop reading this and head over there immediately!) most of you will recognize a lot of this, but there’s uncharted territory here as well. Hoist your proverbial sails and let’s see where the current takes us as we explore Germany’s alt-history.
But a word of warning before we cast off; all you are about to see is very much a work in progress, which means things might and will change.

Germany’s democrats and monarchists have received more to do and are now even accompanied by the communists

As you might be able to tell, the alt-historical branch has been greatly expanded upon and offers a wide range of different playstyles for Germany. One thing that remains the same though is the actual Civil War. We decided very early on not to expand this bit or alter it all that much; we reasoned that if you want to play alt-history you want the Civil War to begin and end as soon as possible. So it’s very much straight to the point still (with maybe one or two new minor surprises). Before moving on to the various political paths, let’s talk about the few Civil War-centric focuses there are.


After starting the Civil War you have a few focuses to help you through these dark times

With the Civil War tearing Germany apart, you can Rally the Nation to bring down the Nazis faster and Rebuild the Nation to help your industries recover faster, which then can be expedited with Revitalize the Nation. All of this should bolster Germany and help it recover quickly to move on to other things, such as tending to the future and deciding what kind of politics you want to pursue.

The Democratic and Monarchist paths share most focuses but cater to different playstyles while not excluding any of them

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to quickly deduce that the Democratic and Monarchist branches share almost all focuses between them. This of course means you can be hyper-aggressive as a Democratic Germany, or become the saviour of East Europe as the Kaiser and fend off Soviet aggression. This has been done to offer different ways of playing Germany, but it also has a basis in reality. After WW1 Germany never ratified the eastern borders set by the Versailles treaty (it would actually take until 1970 for the eastern borders to be accepted and ratified properly), and it always harboured a desire to regain these territories. Even during the Weimar Republic, Germany coveted these areas and never fully accepted the loss of these lands. You’ll be able to regain these lost parts of Germany through different means - but more on that later. Let’s discuss what exactly sets Democracy apart from a revived Kaiserreich.

After you Re-establish Free Elections you can become a technological powerhouse, secure better relations with your Western neighbours, but also become a beacon of Democracy

The Democratic branch is all about cooperation, reconciliation, and technological advancements. You can Reverse the Brain Drain to kick your research into high gear and then further improve it with Shared R&D Programs to really accelerate the research pace. And by making amends with your Western neighbours you can increase trade with them or even regain some of your old colonies. Depending on what you choose between Embrace Liberal Leanings or Strive for Conservative Values you’ll either make political advisors, Economic and Trade Laws much cheaper or get all political and military advisors at a slightly reduced cost while Conscription Law also gets a lot cheaper.

Cooperation and reconciliation will lead to technological innovations and more trade

The Shield of Democracy comes in two different flavours

After you Revive the Kaiserreich you can start to realize the Imperial Forces’ true potential

The keen-eyed among you will notice that you can now choose which flavour of authoritarianism you want; the rule of good old Wilhelm II or install a Military Dictatorship with Wilhelm III as figurehead, with the Fourth Supreme Army Command as the true power in Germany. This also has a historical background with the Army Command being the de facto authority in Germany during the later parts of WW1. Both options have their own exclusive focuses with the Kaiser geared more toward research and the development of Special Projects while the Supreme Army Command is all about preparing Germany for the next war and strengthening its military. What’s true for both though, is the eagerness and willingness to rearm and demand lost territories and exact vengeance….

With Germany’s old colonies lost, the question is how you will regain them

Now, after having chosen your leader and political course, it’s time to set sail and venture out on the open seas to rebuild your old empire through some good old-fashioned Weltpolitik - which simply means “world politics”. This was the imperial foreign policy under Wilhelm II as Germany aimed to become a global power. There are basically two ways to become a global empire once more; you can either accept British naval dominance and ask nicely (and sometimes not so nicely - looking at you Portugal) to get your old colonies back, or you can simply go to war over your old claims and demand your rightful place in the sun. Wedged in between these two paths you have a third option; to align more closely with China and offer both industrial and military help to bolster them. In the end, you’ll carve up Asia between yourselves in spheres of influence. “But wait, hold up, hold up”, I hear you say after taking a long, hard look at the picture above, “‘Carve up Congo’ doesn’t sound like anything the British would agree on”. Believe it or not, but this also has a basis in history; the then Prime Minister of Britain, Chamberlain, once offered Hitler to carve up Congo between both nations. This was a part of his appeasement strategy (famously working out oh-so-well), and the idea was that this would placate Hitler and his lust for conquest. Lmao. I thought it was a neat idea and put it here instead.

What alliances and deals will you strike to strengthen Germany?

If Weltpolitik is all about global power plays on the world stage, then Realpolitik is about how you conduct politics and diplomacy closer to home. The big name associated with the term is of course Otto von Bismarck, who used Realpolitik to achieve the unification of Germany and created a delicate balance of alliances in Europe designed to keep Germany out of a two-front war (which abruptly fell apart as soon as he left office - leading to WW1). There’s quite a lot to go through here actually, so let’s get started - and we’re starting from the far left with:

Tie other nations closer to Germany by strengthening their industries and exploiting their resources

Mitteleuropa of course means “Middle Europe” and is a German term for Central Europe, but the definition of what Mitteleuropa encompasses has shifted throughout the ages. It is not merely a geographical term, but also a political one. Mitteleuropa envisions a German-dominated central Europe with countries strongly tied to, or even ruled by, Germany. And this is exactly what you can achieve by going down this branch. After the Civil War you stand alone, without allies, but this changes here; this is where you once again can form your own alliance to weather whatever may come. This is also where you decide how to handle poor old Austria; do you invite them into your newly founded faction or do you push for unification, giving Burgenland to Hungary to entice them to join Mitteleuropa? From here you have to decide whether or not to restore the old Central powers (with either Austria or Hungary depending on your earlier choice), but under a much stronger German influence, or try to unify as much of Europe under your leadership as possible while making every faction member stronger until you’re able to form the European Confederation?

Who said playing nice can’t be fun? Protect Eastern Europe before the Soviets come knocking on your door

What happens if you play it cool and don’t decide to gobble up other nations? Well, someone else is just going to take your place, aren’t they? There’s a very high likelihood that the USSR will start to eye the countries between them and you with increasing appetite (so not very different from history actually). Who’s going to stop them anyway? You? Ravaged by Civil War you can’t possibly hope to save the countries of Eastern Europe from their fate. It is sealed. A done deal. The Soviets will have these nations for breakfast. Well, I guess you can always try to help them. Offer them guarantees, construct forts, build up their industries, train their militaries - do whatever you can. There’s even a possibility that you can invite them into your faction and further boost their industries….

Coerce your eastern neighbors into giving up lands so you can restore the borders set by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Well, what if you don’t want to play nice? Oh, there are options for you too (the Weltpolitik branch notwithstanding)! Many of you may already know this, but Germany signed a separate peace deal with the Russians towards the end of WW1, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, where the Russians lost ⅓ of their population and over 50% of their industrial lands. So, a pretty severe blow. Well, all of this was undone by the Treaty of Versailles which annulled the treaty, and all of the lands Germany had gained became free nations. It is now within your grasp to restore these borders and German honour!


If you are of the mindset that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair you can Reject the Locarno Treaty and reclaim Elsass-Lothringen

The Locarno Treaty was signed between Germany and a whole bunch of other nations to secure and guarantee Germany’s new WW1 borders with France and Belgium. If you have chosen to bring back the Kaiser from his exile or appoint a military dictatorship, you have the option to first bully the Danes into giving back southern Jutland (another piece of land lost with the Treaty of Versailles), before you can Reject the Locarno Treaty and have at it with France one more time. As you may have noticed, this path is also accessible if you Accept British Naval Dominance in the Weltpolitik branch; the caveat being that France has to fulfill certain criteria first, much like the old focus with the same name.

But what if you don’t want to play a fascist, democratic, or monarchist Germany? Well, there are slim pickings then, but you can always start;

Throw off the shackles of capitalism and free workers around the world as Communist Germany

Welcome to the revolution comrades, it’s been a long time coming. It’s time to establish the Proletariat and bring it to the masses all around the world. There are two ways of doing this, one more aggressive than the other, but neither is peaceful (those damn capitalists just won’t see common sense!), but before we get ahead of ourselves we have to discuss how to turn Communist in the first place. You didn’t think you’d do it by the press of a button, did you? No, you need to press several buttons!

Some of you may deem this the most unrealistic path for Germany to take, but they had several socialist uprisings just after WW1 and some even broke away from Germany and proclaimed their own, independent Soviet republics. In fact, it was the Kiel Mutiny of November 1918 that sparked the following revolutions and uprisings and the downfall of the monarchy in Germany. This mutiny had clear socialist undertones, and while the Left was finally defeated in the German Revolution of 1918 and all German Soviet republics abolished, the Weimar Republic emerged from this turbulence helmed by the Social Democrats. Ok, why am I giving you this quick history lesson? Because this is kind of how you turn Communist; by mimicking history.

Spread the Proletarian Revolution to new states to gain momentum for your cause!

For each state you spread the revolution to the stronger the Communist movement grows, but so does the instability of Germany. And be mindful that not all states are equal; the more industries a state has the more workers you can sway to your cause, and the bigger the impact in loss of stability and increase in Communism support you’ll get. You might also have noticed the Imminent Proletarian Revolution that’s ticking down. So what happens if you reach 0 days?

The Second German Civil War

The states you manage to spread the Proletarian Uprising to will join you in any potential Civil War. Luckily, this Civil War is avoidable - if you play your cards right. For each state you spread the Proletarian Uprising to, you'll add days to the Imminent Proletarian Revolution, postponing the Civil War by a few days. This can also be achieved by completing certain focuses. It’s a race against the clock, but one which you should be able to win - especially if you plan ahead just a little bit.


With The People’s Victory, you have finally become a true socialist nation

So, you’ve emerged as a Communist nation - what now? How will you secure the Revolution, or even spread it elsewhere? There’s a lot left to cover so let’s do a blitz through the various shared branches the Communists have.


If you like the spy game, a Communist Germany is what you’re looking for where you can form the infamous Stasi

Get Communist militias and upgrade Ernst Thälmann’s advisor trait in the Nationale Volksarmee branch (where you might have to sack some generals but also get new ones)


Nationalize Industries to improve August Thalheimer and your factory output before expanding your Recruitable Population with Women’s Rights and Equality


Sign the Second Treaty of Berlin to boost your and the Soviet’s industries and maybe trade some of your factories for resource rights

And that’s it for this blitz round. Let’s turn our attention to more intricate stuff, like how you-


You have had your revolution, comrades, but what about everyone else?

If you like flipping countries Communist, this is the path for you! Here you can Bolster Communist Sentiment in countries, and in doing so eventually trigger a Civil War in said nation. But to secure the Revolution and guarantee that your side comes out on top, you can send Infantry Equipment to countries embroiled in a Communist Civil War, or even send boots on the ground with your volunteer forces. By completing Spark the Flames of Revolution you’ll also create your very own faction: the Proletarian International. With Strengthen Proletarian International you’ll automatically invite any country you helped turn red to your new faction (so those pesky Soviets don’t sweep right in and reap what you’ve sowed by enlarging the Comintern).

Turn all of Europe Red to bolster your faction in ever-growing numbers and put an end to Fascism in Europe


You might have ended Fascism in Europe and turned all of your neighbours into docile allies, but what about the rest of the world?

If you want to spread the Proletariat beyond Europe’s borders you’ll have to Root Out Imperialism and increase resistance and autonomy in African and Asian countries suffering under the boot of colonialism. After that, you can spread the word of Marx to South America or the Middle East before facing off against the forces of Capitalism (which we all know resides in the USA) and the remnants of corporatism in Japan (we don’t care if they’ve turned their backs on their emperor or not - to us they’ll always be fascist sell-outs unless they’re actually Communists, which makes them waaaay cool).

Communist hegemony won’t be realized until we have Hegemony over Europe


Look toward the past and follow in the footsteps of the Spartacus League

The roots of the German Communist movement and the German Communist Party (the KPD) can be found in the Spartacus League, a breakaway group of the Social Democrats. The Spartacus League was founded and led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg (both murdered during the Spartacist uprising in 1919), who both were very much anti-militarists. Luxemburg in particular believed in Democratic institutions and that Communism should use those venues to gain power, while Liebknecht believed in the proletarian revolution. This is also reflected in the exclusively Communist National Spirit of Politbüro.


Politbüro will take on different aspects depending on which Communist path you go down

Honoring the Legacy of the Spartacus League emphasizes the spread of the revolution and embracing Democratic institutions, which all come together in a brand-new type of subjects, exclusive to this path - namely the:

By spreading Communism to neighbouring countries you can subjugate them to Protect the Revolution after you Embrace Democratic Institutions and protect Civil Liberties. This in turn will let you create Volkskommissariats out of these neighbours. The Volkskommissariats will give you a higher percentage of their industries and manpower to their Overlord, namely you.


The Volkskommissarit will strengthen its Overlord’s industries and military

You can also choose to develop your Volkskommissariats’ industry, which in the end will boost your own production. You can also help Instill German Discipline in your subjects, to make them a more effective fighting force

Boosting your Volkskommissariats will inevitably strengthen you too

And in the end, you can choose to integrate any Volkskommissariats and create the German Socialist Volksunion. But what if you want more action? What if you don’t like taking your time map painting? What if you’re the impatient kind who just wants war? Welcome to the-


The Proletarian Dictatorship resembles the other branches more in the sense that you get to gobble up a bunch of nations

This branch is more straightforward and to the point compared to the Legacy of the Spartacus League with its ability to set up Volkskommissariats; here you simply apply superior forces to conquer other nations. Yay! But before you can start your world-conquering rampage you have to sign a Defense Treaty with the Soviets to exchange mutual guarantees with each other, and after that, there’s just one more step; carve Europe into Spheres of Influence. Divide Europe into your respective playgrounds, where you’ll relinquish control over the East but have the West all to yourself. How fun! This will mean that it becomes more expansive for you to try and take any state that resides in the other’s influence.

The Spheres of Influence will divide Europe between you and the Soviets

Okay, you must be getting tired of reading about how to turn Communist, or thinking about if you want to protect Eastern Europe from the greedy Soviets, or if you want to gobble it up yourself. We’re nearly done, let’s just look at some pretty pictures before saying goodbye.


Feast your eyes on some (but not all) of the new country leaders you can get with Götterdämmerung

There might be some more surprises besides these, but the only way to find out is to play the game once the DLC has been released.


The political advisor roster for Democratic and Monarchist Germany


The political advisor roster for Communist Germany


Germany has a plethora of new formables

Phew, we’re very nearly done! Thanks for sticking around this long (it’s been quite a long read). To finish this Dev Diary off we just want to show off some of the very cool new models we have! This is not all of them, but some of them.


Some handsome German Infantry


Some very hot German Infantry


Some Very cold German Infantry

And with that, I would like to say so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen. This is the last Dev Diary about Germany before the release of Götterdämmerung on November 14th, but it is not the final Dev Diary. Next up we have Performance and Modding dropping on November 11th, and after that, the last Dev Diary, Art and Achievements, out on November 12th. I hope you have enjoyed reading about what’s in store for Germany and I can’t wait for you to actually get to play it! See you around folks.

Note: Fixed the date for the Reddit AMA

Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1

Hello! My name is MordredViking (Gareth), and I’m joined in this Dev Diary by D3vil (Jonathan). We previously talked about Belgium and now it’s time to talk about Congo! I’ll start talking about a specific part of the focus tree which relies on close Belgian cooperation, then Jonathan will take over and cover the rest of the branches.



Why Congo though? I know there was some surprise at their inclusion in this expansion, but there is a good reason for it. Namely, they contributed a lot more to the Second World War than you likely realize, plus they were of course intrinsically linked together with Belgium. It was their gold and diamonds which kept the Belgian Government in Exile solvent, meaning that they did not need any donations or loans from the other Allied nations. Congolese soldiers fought in the Force Publique together with other Allied troops against the Italians in Ethiopia. Congolese rubber production was expanded following the fall of South East Asia to Japan, and other raw materials were heavily developed for the war effort, particularly copper and cobalt.

Plus, of course Congo’s Uranium was vital to the Manhattan Project, as Congo had at the time the largest known Uranium deposit in the world.

Now, I am well aware of the elephant in the room. Belgium’s relationship with Congo has not always been benign, and there was a period where horrible atrocities occurred, particularly under King Leopold II (King Leopold III’s grandfather). While the situation in Congo during the Second World War had significantly improved from those dark days, things were by no means perfect. I would remind you however, that this is a war game, focusing on the war and as such we are most interested in Congo’s contribution to the conflict at large.

Now, with that said, let’s get stuck in!


Behold! The Congo Focus Tree in all its glory!

And now for some reason, I’m going to show you a part of the Belgian Focus Tree.


The fog has been lifted, and you can finally see some of those focuses look a little… different.

You might notice that they share a rather large part in common, well this is the joint Colonial Branch that both countries share. There are parts which only one country can do (denoted by the singular flags) and there are parts which either country can do (denoted by both flags, side by side). As one country completes a focus in this section, it will also be completed for the other, with both nations getting something from it.

Belgium must complete Monetary Reconstruction from their Industrial branch, and then Congo Investments and ideally Societe Generale de Belgique to gain access. Congo meanwhile, must do Belgian Congo and then Heart of Africa.

So how does all this work? Well let’s give you some examples.


The bunting flags beneath the focus show who can do what


Everyone gets something, regardless of who completes it

Both countries have modifiers that these will generally improve. For Belgium it’s Colonial Returns. For Congo its the Model Colony.

Societe Generale de Belgique : Completed by Belgium. Improves Congo’s Model Colony with better construction while also improving Belgium’s Colonial Returns with some Political Power Gain.

The Heart of Africa : Completed by Congo. Improves Model Colony with Research Speed for Congo, and gives +75 Political Power to Belgium.

Bakwanga Mine : Completed by either Belgium or Congo. Gives Congo a Civilian Factory (and slot), while improving Belgium’s trade resources per factory.

Generally, the single-nation focuses will give a bigger bonus to that country (and in some rare cases, gives nothing to the other, or can actually cost them something), whereas the focuses either can complete will boost both. Some focuses also function like a “gate” meaning one country needs to complete a focus before the other can progress down a mini branch.


These are the central line of focuses which split the branch into tiers.

The Colonial Branch is also split up into tiers, denoted by the central three (well, technically four) focuses.

The Belgian Congo : Only accessible to Congo, and only Congo will benefit from these. Something of an introduction to the branch as a whole, and solid early-game boosts.

The Heart of Africa : Tier 1, contains most of the resource improvements, as both countries work to kick-start Congo’s economy.

Regional Specialization : Tier 2, requires 6 focuses in the Heart of Africa tier. More advanced resources are here, as well as increasingly technical areas.

Congo’s Place in the World : Tier 3, requires 14 focuses from across Heart of Africa and Regional Specialization. This determines Congo’s future direction and their relationship with Belgium.

Broadly the Colonial Branch is also divided left against right. On the left we have the focuses regarding the extraction of raw resources. These generally will increase Congo’s autonomy. On the right are the more developmental focuses, and these will generally decrease Congo’s autonomy.


How Congo feels about Belgium will determine their future options

So why does autonomy matter? Congo’s autonomy when Congo’s Place in the World is completed will determine their future as a colony, and as a nation.

Congo Free State: Belgium annexes Congo.
Overseas Department of Belgium: Congo remains a puppet of Belgium.
Dominion of Congo: Congo becomes a Dominion, much like Canada or Australia with Britain.
Republic of Congo: Congo declares independence from Belgium. It is possible to achieve this peacefully, but it will be up to Belgium on whether they deem it important (or possible!) to fight to keep it.

When a choice is made here then that status is locked, so note which of these can be completed by Belgium and / or Congo! Of course, if Belgium is no longer the Overlord, then this whole Colonial Branch will be locked. Congo lost its main investor.


Historically, after the war Belgium was able to recover the most quickly of all the European nations, and this was in large part because of how wealthy Congo had made them (plus their gold reserves were intact). This became known as the Belgian Miracle.

Therefore, if Belgium is able to invoke the Congo Free State, Overseas Department or Dominion of Congo, plus Engine of the Economy from their own tree, then they can do the “Belgian Miracle” focus which comes with a massive industrial bonus.

Let’s go into a little more detail about what you can actually get out of the Colonial branch!


Belgium’s “Overlord” branch.

This is Belgium’s Overlord branch, the first two giving access to the wider shared branch, however the latter part generally takes things from Congo, without recompense. These will have pretty large boosts for Belgium, but come at a high cost in autonomy.


The Katanga region, in southern Congo is especially resource rich

Congo is very resource rich, and can bring a wealth of benefits. These range from growing the mining companies of CCCI and Forminiere, prospecting for gold or diamonds, and eventually, expanding the Shinkolobwe mine for more Uranium.

Belgium however, must also bear in mind rising autonomy should it invest in this area too heavily though! Similarly, if Congo is on a path to Independence then it might want to sacrifice some of their mineral wealth… for the greater good (the greater good).

Speaking of Uranium, if Belgium is able to complete the Uranium Development Trust, then this will confer a bonus to Nuclear Special Projects for ALL members of their faction! Congo too can tap into this more sneakily, and smuggle Uranium to any other Major Power to give them that bonus too, for a price. Even if they’re at war.


These focus more on the non-mineral related activities within Congo, including rubber production

There’s more to the Congo than mining, for one there is major potential for rubber cultivation as well as widespread agriculture. The sheer size of Congo is also a factor here, and you can invest in various forms of infrastructure to better utilize the vast interior. The Belgian Devaluation line contains autonomy reducing systems, while French Congo and Colonial Ambitions provide an outlet towards further African expansion.


The Force Publique was the militarized police force, significantly expanded during the First World War and critical in the war against German Africa

The Force Publique section is initially locked so that only Belgium can access it, however should Congo find itself at war, then it too can begin completing it.

Initially this section is about improving the Force Publique, increasing the manpower available, giving them bonuses to fighting in the Congo proper, and some hefty jungle warfare buffs. Later, you can modernize it into the Army of the Congo.


Congo can nab this talented officer from the Belgians!

It was said of Raoul van Overstraeten that, “he is likely one of the most talented officers in the Belgian military, the problem is that he himself knows it”. It’s unlikely (but possible) that Belgium will want to bring him back into service, however he served with distinction in the Congo during the First World War so may be more amenable to serve in Africa once more.

Anyway, that’s all from me on the shared part of the tree! I now hand over to D3vil (Jonathan) for more of the Congo-centric part of the tree. I warn you in advance he has added a lot of kings! Like seriously, there are a tonne.

Hello again, it’s me D3vil here to bring you some more interesting things regarding the Congolese content. So to start off with the unique Congolese focuses are divided into a few separated parts, namely: “The Invisible Roof”, “Governor General Pierre Ryckmans”, “Congolese National Movements”, “Our Overlord’s War”, “The ANC” and the “Post-Independence Political” branches. Also don’t worry, it may not look like anything now, but a path may appear below the focus “Assemble a Regency Council” once someone has been chosen to take the throne.


The Branches in question!

In order to give you a better idea of how the country starts off, so that I can better explain the unique tree, I’ll show you their country screen and their starting national spirits.


The new country select screen for the Belgian Congo, with a TL:DR for the historical context


Their Starting National Spirits

First of all, there is a small sub branch for ridding yourself of the “Invisible Roof” national spirit, costing of these three focuses. They can only be taken once you have become independent, through whichever means it may be.


The Invisible Roof focuses

But to move on to some of the more interesting branches, let’s start off with the ones I usually call the “pre-independence political branches”, as in the ones that start with the focuses “Governor General Pierre Ryckmans”, “Found the Congolese National Movement” and “National Committee for Liberation”.


The left-most focuses are to do with strengthening the colonial regime,while the ones to the right deal with achieving independence, one of them peacefully, the other through a war of independence


Some focuses in the Pierre Ryckmans branch

If you wish for independence, one way would be to grow your democracy support and gain independence score to peacefully liberate yourself, while the other would be through war. The choice is yours, and breaking away peacefully will more than likely put you on a path towards democracy, but should you choose violence, well then the political climate may change drastically…


Some focuses in the “Push for Independence” branches

There is a branch available to you if you are still together with Belgium, and they happen to find themselves at war, perhaps by the Germans invading them to get around the Maginot. Should this occur, the Congo will be able to gain strong timed bonuses that will help it rearm and prepare to aid its allies in the new Great War.


The “Our Overlord’s War” branch and some of its focuses

The armed forces of the Congo can’t stay a colonial gendarmerie forever, and as such, either after gaining independence, or after finishing the Force Publique branch in the Joint focus tree, the “Armée Nationale Congolaise” branch will unlock, allowing for professionalization of your armed forces.


The ANC branch and some of its focuses

After becoming independent, there are a few different paths you can take. One requires you to have 40% or more democracy support, one the same but for communism, and the third requires less than 40% for either political party.


The Post-independence political branches

First, before we show off individual branches and focuses, it might be time to show what advisors are available to the Congo.


Congolese Advisors

First off we have the democratic branch. This one focuses mainly on being able to quickly rid yourself of your administrative maluses, and industrialize as soon as possible. It does also contain the opportunity for a bit of expansion, and as the Congo has a new “generic” formable nation available to it, they have the ability to core some places no matter which path they choose.


The United States of Latin Africa


Some focuses in the democratic branch

In the communist branch you have two main choices, similar to what you can do in Ethiopia. One is to use wargoals and limited wars to liberate nations, eventually leading up to forming the African union, with the other one about spreading the revolution throughout the continent, potentially also joining the Comintern. With the Congo also being able to use the formerly purely Ethiopian “African Union” mechanics, these decisions have been changed to be cheaper for both countries, and have had parts of their functionality revised.


Some focuses in the communist branches

Now for something a bit more unusual. In the case that the country cannot unite behind one school of thought, a council of ministers can be put together to convene with a sole goal in mind. To end the political chaos, and select a ruler who can take the nation in a better direction. They will attempt to select a ruler from one of many regional monarchs in and around the Congo, in an event chain similar to the Polish royal election events. A focus branch will then appear, depending on who you decide on in the events.

I will give you a sneak peek at two of the branches, and leave the rest of them for you to discover. I will however leave you with the portraits and names of the awesome-looking monarchs you can elect for now.


Two of the available monarchist branches


The Monarchs available to the Congo

That has been all for now however! If you have any questions, Mordred and I will do our best to answer what we can. Be sure to tune in next week, when Paradox_Danne and ManoDeZombi will show you all about the new and improved German alt-history routes. See you then!

Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1

We’re going to be talking about a nation that was invaded in both World Wars, and were present and fighting until the end in both, despite being either partly, or wholly occupied for the majority of those conflicts. Their people were very much on the front lines, and the landscape remains scarred by the wars even to this day.



Hello! My name is Mordred Viking, though some of you may know me as Gareth. I am a Content Designer on Hearts of Iron IV, and I very much wanted to see this nation given more content in the game because they contributed so much, but are often so little known.

As such, I’d like to present the real story of the plucky underdog: Belgium.


Behold! The Belgian Focus Tree! Plus a weird blurry bit in the middle. I wonder what that could be?

I had a couple of goals starting out with the design of Belgium. Firstly, I wanted to give them a chance to actually hold out. Secondly, if this failed, I wanted them to be fun to play in exile. Thirdly, I wanted to showcase the close relationship between Belgium and Congo. As is always the case in these diaries, please bear in mind that all you are about to see is a work in progress.

Right! So with those goals in mind, let’s start taking a closer look at what all this actually means.


Paul van Zeeland is the Prime Minister at the start of the game.
You can see from his fancy top hat, that he is clearly a very trustworthy fellow!

At the start of the game, Belgium finds itself in an interesting position. The memory of the Great War is still very much in mind, their economy still recovering from its impact and the countryside still scarred by the many trenches meandering through the fields of Flanders. In order to avoid a second Great War, the Belgians embarked on a policy of neutrality, much like the Dutch and Swiss. They even canceled their alliances with Britain and France, something which took both those nations by surprise as they had fought to protect Belgium previously.


The Chasseur Ardennais give Belgium some unique fighting options in terrain other nations would find too rugged.

The political landscape wasn’t much better, corruption plagued the government of Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland, causing a furor which was whipped up by the fascists under Leon Degrelle who demanded an investigation- we’ll talk more about this later! Complicating all this, Belgium is of course a nation of twin cultures, the French speaking Wallons and the Dutch speaking Flemish. To reflect all this, they have the above starting National Spirits.


Which to tackle first? Security or corruption?
Despite increasingly hostile rhetoric from neighbouring Germany, the Belgian government historically refused to sanction further military spending needed to bring state forces and defenses up to scratch without the promise of a declaration of neutrality from the crown, so that they could avoid being drawn into what they saw as other people’s wars. Simultaneously, Fascist agitation against the widespread government corruption can cause the Democratic government to resign, triggering political manoeuvring which can ultimately lead to any of the ideologies rising to power.


Following the declaration that Belgium is “Independent, Neutral and Loyal”, you gain access to the defensive branch

The so-called Defensive branch is about, well, defending. When hostilities seem inevitable, Belgium would be wise to invest some time and resources into these. The Redoubt of Antwerp line will see the rise of impressive fortifications, while Belgian Gates and the Iron Wall act as force multipliers and improve the effectiveness of these defenses. The latter part of the branch provides additional defensive options, including the radical decision to really tap into Belgium’s position as one of the Low Countries, and saturate their enemies with more than just bullets.


The Belgians boast a number of powerful MIOs, particularly small arms producer FN Herstal who partnered closely with Browning (and would later go on to buy them).

Belgium’s army was surprisingly potent, having been able to muster 600,000 troops before the German invasion, with decent officers and well developed industrial support providing high quality equipment particularly in terms of infantry equipment and artillery. I’ve also chosen to tap a little into their WW1 penchant with armored cars to give them that option, and they can eventually overcome the Scars of WW1 and turn those experiences into their strength.

On the other side, education was important to the Belgian military, and high level courses in a wide range of different subjects were offered through the Royal Military Academy. Historically, Belgian integration into the British SAS met with excellent results, particularly in France… where being able to speak French was a real advantage... Quelle surprise? This combined with the Chasseur Ardennais modifiers, means that the Belgian Special Forces can indeed bring something powerful and unique to the battlefield.


For such an industrial nation, the Belgian industrial branch is curiously small…
I wonder why? Could there be another facet to this?

Although the economic situation facing Belgium at the start is quite poor, the scaling potential is quite impressive, with numerous ways to quickly get new factories up and running, and then to make those as efficient as possible. Historically, Belgian industry was in an interesting position, with companies having a very progressive attitude towards their employees, including the introduction of a 40 hour work week and paid vacations.

The cornerstone of Belgian industrial might was Cockerill, a company that suffered through the First World War, and continued manufacturing machines and ships throughout the interwar period and into the Second World War. Historically, they survived the conflict, maintaining high levels of employment manufacturing pig iron and trains rather than weapons for the occupiers. This gets to the heart of Belgian production at the time, trains, which were the primary export in the run up to war.


The Belgians were real innovators in the air, unfortunately their aeronautical industry never really took off in time.

Despite a good showing in the First World War, the Belgian Air Force was woefully under developed at the onset of the Second World War. The majority of Belgian aircraft in 1940 were old foreign planes, and despite a very brave attempt, the Belgians recorded only one German aircraft downed.

However, they did have some good home-grown design talent, particularly Alfred Renard who was a pioneer in the development of all-metal aircraft, and Nicholas Florine, the father of twin-rotor helicopters. Who knows what they could have achieved had that domestic industry been allowed to flourish.


The Belgians had a huge and flourishing port in Antwerp, not to mention overseas colonial possessions, so surely they had a mighty navy to protect it all?

The Navy in 1936 was… well, there wasn’t one. Despite being granted ships from Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, the Belgians disbanded their entire fleet in 1927 as a cost saving measure. This means that you have to start from scratch in order to develop a fleet at all. This focus branch therefore is all about doing just that. Thankfully, the Belgians are not without resources and capacity, with Antwerp particularly being capable of quickly bringing naval production online.

This highlights another facet of the Belgian game we’ve not yet touched on, their excellent capacity for diplomacy. Through having the right people in Government and developing Antwerp, Belgium can enjoy a significant advantage when buying resources on the world market, spending fewer civilian factories for each trade.


The Port of Antwerp can really help your trade


Behold! Politics!

Now that we’ve talked about the industrial and military facets important to any Belgian game, let’s talk about the political sphere, the Democratic resistance, Fascist rise or Communist tough-decisions. Finally, the Monarchy was a real power within Belgium and can be involved in all branches, although just what role they will play remains to be seen - and of particular concern to the people of Belgium is precisely where the King’s loyalties lie.


Step one. Stamp on van Zeeland’s hat.

As we mentioned earlier, rife corruption is the first political hurdle to be overcome. In order to begin tackling those horrible corruption modifiers, Paul van Zeeland’s government will have to resign. This will call an immediate election, with two outcomes. Historically, the Emile Vandervelde’s Labour Party won the most votes, but did not have enough to form a majority government. Therefore they allied with Zeeland’s Catholic Bloc to get the numbers needed, and the Government of National Unity was formed with our main man, and master survivor, Paul van Zeeland at its head.

The other option is for Vandervelde to form his own minority government. While this will cause some instability, it will lead towards a left wing- possibly Communist path. We’ll talk about that in a bit.

Going back to the first option, unfortunately Paul van Zeeland is himself a ticking time bomb, and his luck can hold out only so long. The Fascist Leon Degrelle intensifies the corruption investigations, and reveals that, shock horror, Paul van Zeeland himself is implicated! This leads in time to the fall of the Government of National Unity.


“Don’t make me choose!” - King Leopold III probably.

King Leopold III himself steps and mounts a royal intervention, declaring for either the democratic Paul-Émile Janson, or acknowledging Degrelle’s work tackling the corruption inherent in the system and swearing Degrelle in as the new Prime Minister.


The Historical branch is short and sweet, and it was definitely not an intentional design decision to give more time to spend on certain other parts of the focus tree. Nope, definitely nothing so nefarious.

The Historical branch focuses on stabilizing Belgium following all the chaos that has dogged the democratic side.

The first step is implementing Henri de Man’s economic policies (historically, he was the Minister of the Economy), in the amazingly named “Plan de Man” which helps relieve some of the pressure from “Economic Downturn”. This in turn leads to the Economic Recovery, though it does require the Dyle Plan. What is the Dyle Plan you ask? Well, it was the result of Belgium’s declarations of neutrality and breaking of their alliances with Britain and France.

Despite this public neutrality, Belgium was under no illusions about Germany’s intentions and maintained secret back channel negotiations with the Allied nations. The Dyle Plan was a military strategy where Belgium would resist invasion to the Dyle River line, allowing French and British troops time to arrive and assist in the defense, much like in the First World War. In game-terms, this increases the likelihood that Allied forces will actually come and help Belgium, rather than leave them to their fate.

Unfortunately, the Economic Recovery was something of an illusion, and Janson didn’t survive as Prime Minister, this time being toppled by Paul-Henri Spaak who is quite possibly the most important Belgian politician ever.

Seriously, look this guy up, he was quite impressive. He was Prime Minister of Belgium several times, first President of the United Nations (and sponsored the entry of the Soviets Union into the UN, ensuring there was a platform for the two Cold War rivals to talk), President of the European Coal and Steel Community (forerunner to the European Union), and finally General Secretary of NATO.

This leadership was first tested with the Adriaan Martens Crisis, where a Flemish Nationalist, WW1 German Collaborator and Fascist was appointed to the Royal College of Surgeons. Historically, Spaak did not survive this crisis, leading to his resignation and the arrival of Hubert Pierlot to the office of Prime Minister, although here you have the option to pay the political price and keep Spaak around, allowing you to call the Council of Europe, and form the European Union. Pierlot was the historical wartime leader of Belgium during the Second World War, and fled with his Foreign Minister (Spaak), Economic Minister (Gutt) and Minister of Colonies (Vleeschauwer) to London and formed the Belgian Government in Exile.

Now it is possible to just… not capitulate, in which case Pierlot can reverse the Belgian Neutrality and join a faction. If however, the worst should happen and Germany (or whomever) does successfully invade…

Remember that I had a couple of goals starting out with the design of Belgium: I wanted them to be fun to play in exile - therefore there is a reason to keep playing if this happens!


I won’t spoil the circumstances around just how this happens! You’ll have to play it to find out.

(We’re still waiting for La Dame Blanche icon art!)

The worst has happened, and Belgium has capitulated. Some of that blame will, rightfully or wrongly, fall on the King’s shoulders. Just how he is treated by the government in exile will determine whether he falls by the wayside, or becomes a figure around whom to rally resistance.

The historical path was to declare the King unfit to reign, and centralize resistance efforts around the Government in Exile in London. This path is all about gaining support from allies, and using the resources in Congo to fight back and reclaim Belgium.

The Prisoner King is a very plausible alternative path, and the real Exiles agonized about how best to mount the resistance. In this scenario, the King plays on his status as a prisoner in his own nation, using his influence to solidify Belgian resistance and begin a monarchist resurgence.


The rising power of the Fascists in Belgium have a lot of options open to them.

(We’re still waiting for Strength and Brotherhood icon art!)

Once Degrelle has been invited to take power as Prime Minister, he will need to make a choice between which Fascist group to support and empower. Degrelle will remain in power regardless of your choice here, this is because I absolutely cannot imagine him giving up that position once he’s got it, plus it was the King making *him* the Prime Minister, not the Fascists. They are still a minority in the country. As such, the decision here is not an indication of which faction is in power, but rather whose ambitions Degrelle is supporting.

There were two major factions at the time (and a whole myriad of smaller ones), and each has a broad set of goals they want to achieve but it can loosely be considered as follows:

• The Rexists are the “Fascist Nationalist” path - Build up Belgium itself
  
• The VNV are the “Fascist Expansionist” path - Make a bigger Belgium
  
• The middle shared path - Things both sides can do

The Rexists believed mostly in a strong Belgium and worked with many different groups to this end. They were the primary collaborator with Germany during the war, so in this branch they are very Germany-aligned (early designs even had them become a puppet!), and have the most to gain from an alliance with Fascist Germany. The main thing blocking this tall approach is internal Fascist support, so Degrelle will need to work at consolidating his grip on power within Belgium.

The VNV (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond) were historically Flemish nationalists, and didn’t want much to do with the Walloons. However, I really didn’t want to add yet another civil war, nor did I want to break up an already small country (because a player’s first action would be just to unite it again). As such I thought they’d be most about embiggening Belgium, uniting with their Dutch speaking brethren to the north, and invoking the old ideas of Burgundy. If they’re feeling super bold, they can go after France proper in a bid to recreate the old Roman province of Belgica, including the ability to core a number of French states which comprised Belgica historically.

The shared focus tree allows Fascist Belgium to do a number of things, including a peaceful union with Luxembourg, abandoning neutrality early in order to join factions or attack other nations, plus it gives them a number of tools to consolidate power and enhance the power of the state.


What If Belgium held out? This is the branch to find out!

So Degrelle has come to power, but Hubert Pierlot, fearing what this would mean for the democratic traditions of the country, invokes Parliament’s own protections, declaring the King temporarily unable to reign before the monarch can sign the royal assent locking Degrelle in. This renders the appointment void, and Pierlot calls for a snap election. This will lead to King Leopold’s abdication, and Charles, Count of Flanders’ appointment as Royal Regent (Leopold’s brother).

For those questioning the realism of this, something similar actually happened in Belgium in 1990. King Baudouin didn’t want to sign a bill into law for personal religious belief reasons, so had himself declared temporarily unfit to reign, meaning Parliament could bypass royal assent.

The election is then between the Liberals, led by Pierlot and the Socialists, led by… you guessed it, Spaak! This gives Belgium a choice to gain Allied protections or go for another option- the Soviets. Internally, they build build build, combining defenses in this branch with the defensive branch will lead to some truly massive fortifications.


Belgian Maginot


Better than Maginot


Mobile Maginot!


Belgian Socialists had some interesting opinions on Spain and Congo.

Going down the other path after that initial election, choosing the Vandervelde Minority sets Belgium on the path of Socialism. At the time, there was very little actual support for Communism, with even the trade unions being quite weak. This was because, as mentioned earlier, many large companies were already very socially aware and progressive for their time. As such, in game Belgium will generally remain Democratic in this branch, though there are ways of going Communist further down.

Therefore this branch is less about radical shifts in policy, and more about their diplomatic outlook. Belgium has the potential to provide significant support for the Spanish Republicans (something that Vandervelde historically pushed hard for). Similarly, Socialist attitudes in Congo were quite paternalistic, providing a strange combination of imperialism with socialist values. Finally, Socialist Belgium can send peacekeeping forces (volunteers) without turning their back on neutrality.

Ultimately, lines in the sand must be drawn, and Socialist Belgium can turn to the Soviets (with “Raise the Red Flag” flipping them Communist for gameplay reasons), or form the European Union.


Belgium has a broad set of skills at their disposal

Belgium has a good number of advisors, with a wide range of different abilities. Of note are:

Paul Henri Spaak, who can increase the amount of raw materials per civilian factory in trade. Did I mention he was kinda cool?

Edgar Sengier, who realized the importance of Uranium to atomic research, and so shipped the Belgian Uranium supplies to America before Germany could take them. He was also critical in reopening Uranium mining in Congo. It was his foresight that basically made the Manhattan Project even feasible. He boosts the speed of Nuclear Special Projects.

Walthere Dewe, leader of the Belgian resistance in WW1. Anticipating the German invasion, he went back into hiding just before the outset of WW2 to rebuild his networks, and led the resistance AGAIN. In-game he [REDACTED].

Dieudonné Saive, the principal designer at FN Herstal, and who collaborated closely with Browning. He increases factory output, research speed and MIO funds gain.


I know this was a weapon of the 1950s, but hear me out!

While we’re on the topic of Saive, there is one slightly controversial topic that I just know will come up, so let's address it. I’ve chosen to include the FN FAL as the final tier of Belgian Small Arms. So why is this weapon, widely adopted in the 1950s by NATO forces, in a WW2 game? I sincerely believe that had Belgium not capitulated, then between Saive’s exceptional weapon design capabilities, his very close collaboration with John Browning and access to the German Sturmgewehr 44 that Belgium would have developed their own assault rifle in the latter years of the war.

As it was, the first prototype of this weapon was delivered in 1947 and it went into regular service in 1953. Ideally I’d have included this as a 1943-44 weapon, but as this is the final weapon tech in our tree this is where it had to go. After all, isn’t half the fun of these games the “what-if” scenarios?


The Chasseurs Ardennais rocked the iconic green berets, although they were worn longer on the side.

Belgium was fortunate in generally having a competent officer class. While many of the generals here will not be available from the start, there is a good selection of skills available. Despite this, Belgium starts with no Field Marshals, and while a couple of the above would make good candidates in the interim, they can recruit the two below later.


Make the right choices and King Leopold III can also take the field!

Now, Belgium didn’t have a navy during WW2, and therefore I could find no admirals… but wait! The unknown designer before me who had added a couple of Belgians to vanilla had included an admiral. At first I thought he was just randomly generated, but no. Turns out he was the chap responsible for rebuilding Belgium’s entire fleet post-war, so he’s in!


If you get him a navy, he will lead it for you!

I know many of you will be curious about the Belgian units, well here we are!


Belgian Soldier (left), Chasseur Ardennais (right)

Before I sign off, there was one last thing I wanted to cover, and that’s audio. We have a super talented team who handles this, but it was the one area of development that I had never really collaborated with.

Therefore when we were told that each country would have 2 new music tracks added, I had zero idea about how to approach this. We had a sit down with the audio directors and composers who we’d work with, and they laid out the process. We then needed to find several reference pieces to give the general “sound”, as well as include the emotions we wanted the tracks to evoke.

Belgian Wartime Track : Proud, Stubborn, Defensive
Belgian Peacetime Track : Trepidation, Uncertainty, Loss


This was the general premise I provided for the peacetime track

I’ve got to say they absolutely nailed those notes, and I am super, super excited for you to hear these tracks when you play Belgium in Götterdämmerung!

That’s all we have for you for Belgium!

I can’t wait to see you all give it a try when we release, and I eagerly await the stories from your playthroughs!


Next time…

See you on the 4th of November!


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Hi, Thomas here talking about game mechanics again. I work as Design Manager and Design Lead on Hearts of Iron. Today we are looking at another of the new features that comes with Götterdämmerung, namely Raids. The normal caveats apply, everything you see here is subject to change, especially visual details as some are awaiting final art touches at the time of writing, and other things, such as balancing and tweaking are ongoing. But you probably know the drill by now.

The Raids feature allows you to plan and execute targeted strikes on enemy installations, or perform unique missions of various kinds. Whereas strategic bombing targets enemy industry and infrastructure in a general way, Raids are pinpoint strikes against very specific targets that usually require months of preparation. Targets can vary, but the general goal of a raid is to inflict strategic damage to your opponent that will hamper their war machine for an extended period of time.

Perhaps one of the most important functions of the Raids is that you can use them to target enemy experimental facilities in order to disrupt their special projects. Once you know the location of a facility, you can start planning a raid to damage it, and inflict a setback to the ongoing project there. A successful strike not only damages the facility, slowing research down until repaired, but can also damage equipment etc. and set the progress back by weeks or even months.

The feature also allows you to replicate things such as Operation Chastise, more commonly known as the Dambusters Raid. You can develop the Barnes Wallis' bouncing bomb, and then target an enemy dam with one of your raids. A successful strike not only knocks the hydroelectric power plant out, it also floods the region, hindering enemy troop movement.

Or, if you want to take that concept even further, you can try to blow up the canal locks in the Panama Canal, to stop enemy ships crossing from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. But you will probably need a very long range bomber for that - unless you start in Central America of course…

Let's take a look at how to work with the Raids:

The main interaction point for the Raids feature is the map. You see potential targets on the map and when you hover them you get more details about them.

When you click the target icon, you start setting up a raid against that target. Some targets might have more than one viable Raid type, in which case you first decide what top target with this particular raid. What do you want to strike, the Reichstag, or the experimental nuclear facility in Potsdam? (Just an example, right. Germany does not start with a secret nuclear lab, Promise!)


Deciding on a target for a Raid in Northern Germany

After having selected your target, you need to find a unit to perform the Raid, be it paratroopers, an air wing, or whatever is required by the Raid. You can do this from the map as well, or you can select from a list of units that is displayed at this stage. Various factors affect how good a unit is at executing a Raid, but the most important one is usually how experienced it is. The more experience, the better the chances of getting a really good result. But again, other things apply as well.


Time to choose the airwing

The last thing you need to select is from where to launch the Raid. If it is an air wing you need to pick an airfield within range of the target. Once you have made these choices, the selected team is ready to start preparing for the Raid.


Let’s launch from a safe place

You can’t launch the Raid immediately. The unit must travel to the starting location if not already there. Usually there are other requirements as well. It might require extra equipment of some kind. (Common examples being convoys, transport planes, infantry equipment, or even nuclear bombs…)

Once everything is in place, the unit can start preparing. Equipping the right type of bombs, undergoing special training, and so on. The amount of time needed depends on the Raid type.

Once preparation is complete, you can launch the Raid whenever you choose to - as long as the launch criteria are met. What does that mean? Well, some raids can be prepared in peace time for example, but can’t be launched unless a war is ongoing.


It’s going to take some time, but hopefully it will be worth it

But what if I don’t want to sit and monitor whether a Raid is ready to be launched? First of all, you get an alert when a Raid finishes preparation, so you don’t really have to monitor it that closely. Second, if you feel that it is not necessary to time it exactly you can select auto launch instead. When you do that you get the option to only launch when your chance of a successful Raid is at least at a certain level.

As said above, the Raid can be launched either manually or automatically. Or if you prefer, you can launch all prepared raids at the same time with the press of a single (red) button.

Once launched you will see a 3d model travel to the target, executing its orders. And when it strikes you get a report of the outcome.


Getting there

A Raid will not automatically be successful. There are a number of factors that come into play when executing a Raid. Some depend on the unit itself (experience for example), others on specific conditions, such as for example air superiority, and others again on what the enemy does and how they have set up their defenses. You see a general indication of your chances on the Raids display, and when you hover the display you get a more detailed breakdown in the tooltip. As a defender you do various things to decrease the chances of a successful Raid. If it is an air strike you can add Anti Air and you can try to gain air superiority, for example.


Our chances aren’t super high, maybe time to do something about it

There is one further lever you can pull. By increasing the risk taking of the unit you can increase the chance, but if they don’t succeed they run a higher risk of taking severe losses. And vice versa, you can lower the risk taking, and thereby minimizing the risk for a disastrous outcome, but also somewhat lowering the chance of a very positive outcome.


It worked flawlessly

Starting a Raid is a bit of an investment. Especially in time, as the unit involved will be unavailable for quite some time. In addition, additional equipment is sometimes needed, forcing you to have it in your stockpile. Finally, there is a Command Power cost to Raids, lowering your max cap while preparing and executing.


We’ve allocated 25 to this, but we still have plenty to go

Together with the map mode selection ui, you have a new section with raid filters. This allows you to hide and display your raid targets and raids depending on your preferences. If you are only interested in displaying Air Raid targets for example, you can hide other categories. Or if you want to hide them all in the Land/Sea/Air map mode, you can do so, and only access them through the raids map mode.

There are a few different types of Raids to choose from in Götterdämmerung, some of which I will talk a bit about below:

As mentioned in the beginning, you can for example do a strike against an enemy experimental facility - much like the historical Raids on Penemünde. This will, if successful, cause damage to the facility; making it slower, and you can set the actual project work back by a number of weeks or even months, buying you more time to defeat your enemies.

If you do the Bouncing Bomb special project first, you can strike an enemy Dam. Dams are a new building that we have added. They apply state level bonuses, and thus are useful for boosting your industry, but of course they can be a bit of a liability if your enemy comes up with a way of destroying them. You can’t build Dams per se, instead you get a few starting ones, and then certain countries can get more through their focus trees where appropriate.

Additionally, if you have developed the bouncing bomb, you can do lock strikes. There are two major locks represented in the game, Panama and Kiel. Blowing up one of these will stop naval traffic through the canals. And no, there are no locks or anything you can blow up in Suez… Sorry… It’s just a flat stretch of water through sand…

Raids can be used as counters to enemy super weapons as well. If your enemy develops the V3 mega gun project, you can use your earthshaker bombs to target and destroy them.

Another thing you can do is to try to strike at your enemy’s resources. For example, you can try to target the Ploiești oil fields, as was done by the USA in Operation Tidal Wave. A successful strike here will lower the oil output from Romania for quite some time, thus hampering the German (and Romanian) war machine.


Hampering the German access to oil

A somewhat different type of Raid are the nuclear strikes. Yes, nuclear strikes are now planned in advance and you need to designate a unit to drop the bomb, you no longer just press a button in the state and province view. The nuclear raids work very similarly to other raids, with one major exception. Instead of having one or more set targets, the UI lets you select any province when planning a nuclear strike - as long as they can be reached. You can plan strikes against neutral countries, but you can’t launch unless at war, and you cannot target your allies - they wouldn’t be your allies if you could, right?

In addition to the initial destruction caused by nuclear bombs, they also now have some lingering effects, making them a bit more devastating than they used to be for the country getting nukes dropped on them


Selecting a place to bomb

Not all Raids are available to everyone. In order to make raids even more flavourful, we have also added a few custom raids; such as the German Eben Emael raid where Germany had spent a vast amount of money and resources on preparing for a combined paratrooper and glider attack on the Belgian border fortress - having their soldiers train on every step of the attack beforehand. Or as the UK, you can replicate the British bombing of Berlin during the early stages of the war (this was, and is in game, mainly a morale booster). We have also included some of the more odd but rather flavourful Raids, such as Operation Jericho where the UK tried to free French resistance fighters by blowing up a prison using Mosquito fighter bombers.




Chinese Bombers enroute to Japan - but wait what are they dropping?

That's all for this Developer diary, we hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned, more Götterdämmerung content will be arriving on Wednesday where we will be talking about Belgium and neutrality. Surely Belgium can manage to stay out of the war this time…

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Willkommen zurück to another German Dev Diary!



Last time we talked about the Common Branches and the Historical Branch of Germany. Now, I, Paradox_Danne, ManoDeZombi, D3vil and Nattmaran (please insert joke about how many content designers it takes to make a Germany) will at least try to explain the various new systems for Germany. As we alluded to and hinted at in the last German Dev Diary, Germany has a whole swath of new mechanics we’d like to go through with you. Keep in mind that all of this is still very much a work in progress, which means things may change. So without further ado, let’s press on!

Historically, the MEFO Bills played a major role in the German rearmament in the 1930s and were devised by Hjalmar Schacht. It was partly a way to keep military production hidden (because it directly violated the Versailles Treaty from WW1) and functioned as a means to pay for the actual rearmament program. While Austrian and Czech gold reserves that were seized helped to bolster the economy and staved off an impending collapse, it only bought the Germans some time. In the end, this glorified Ponzi scheme almost bankrupted the country and can be seen as a motivation for why Germany went to war when it did. The armament program constantly required new resources to devour, so Germany was forced to continue to feed the beast as it were. This led to large-scale plundering and theft wherever the Nazis and the Wehrmacht went, to sustain the ever-hungry war machine.

In-game, this economic collapse was never really seen or felt, and it wasn’t until after the first war that you had to pay back the MEFO Bills. This means that the vast majority of players probably never even knew there was a price to pay for them. This is all changing. The intention of the reworked MEFO Bills is partly to slow down early German build-up somewhat and at the same time drive a German player to go on a conquering spree.


The MEFO Bills at the start of the game in1936

Granted, this is a far cry from what the MEFO Bills looked like in the old version, but if you read the previous German Dev Diary (which you really should) you know that this National Spirit can be improved. But something else you probably picked up on, is that Consumer Goods Factories factor (that is to say, the percentage of your civilian factories that are put on producing Consumer Goods, ergo not able to trade or build anything) is increasing each month, and it will continue to increase until it reaches 100%. This is the price Germany pays for quickly rearming again; all available resources are diverted to military production. The keen-eyed among you have also read two other things; additional penalties will be added once you reach 100% Consumer Goods Factories factor (henceforth known as CGFF because I can’t be bothered to type all of that out every time I refer to it), and that the rate of increasing CGFF will be higher based on the amount of non-core states controlled by Germany. What does all of this even mean? Well, simply put, if you fail to feed the beast that is your arms industry, you will start to produce less material. And by controlling non-core states, you’re diverting valuable resources away from rearmament.


Bad things will happen if you can’t manage the MEFO Bills

Price Controls
There are of course ways you can manage the MEFO Bills - at least for a while. Institute Price Controls will not only lower the monthly CGFF increase by 0.5% (so from 3% to 2.5%), but it also unlocks decisions to temporarily lower the CGFF.


Institute Price Controls will reduce the monthly CGFF increase ever so slightly


Price control measures will be crucial to managing the MEFO Bills

Sooner or later you’ll run out of tricks to keep your economy afloat though, and what do you do then? You do what every other dictator does when things are going south at home; go to war. Going to war will trigger an event, asking you if you want to get rid of the rearmament program and receive Recovering Economy instead, or if you want to switch MEFO Bills for Economy of Conquest and unlock the decision to Seize Gold Reserves.


Would you rather have a Recovering Economy or an Economy of Conquest

The decision to Seize Gold Reserves is key to managing the ever-increasing CGFF. Once you have capitulated a country (and this is important; the country must have capitulated to you or one of your subjects) you will be able to seize their gold reserves. This will temporarily reduce the CGFF - just as with the Price Controls decisions. The CGFF reduction is based on the number of total factories in the core states of the targeted country you control. Ergo, more developed countries will reduce the CGFF more. These decisions can however only be taken for countries in Europe - so don’t go around thinking you can seize the USA’s gold reserves. There’s one catch though; seizing the gold reserves of a country will increase Resistance and lessen Compliance in the states. I’m also toying with the idea of giving each state a productivity penalty for a short amount of time.


Seizing Gold Reserves

Seizing other country's gold won’t fix your own economy though, it’s just buying you more time. Is there a way of getting rid of the Economy of Conquest? Why yes, yes there is! But it obviously involves a lot of conquering before you can fix the mess you’ve put your economy in.


By completing Autarky Achieved you will transform your economy and gain Wirtschaftswunder

As you can see, you need a lot of natural resources. (Just a quick fyi here; these numbers are not set in stone yet and might change before release.) Not only will Autarky Achieved replace Economy of Conquest with Wirtschaftswunder (or Economic Miracle, for those who didn’t read the previous German Dev Diary - naughty, naughty!) but it will also improve the Trade Law Autarky.

And that’s all there is to say about the MEFO Bills and Economy of Conquest and how to manage them. Let’s move on to another brand-new mechanic, an utterly unique one for Germany.

The Nazi government functioned in a pretty peculiar way; on the one hand, you had the proper government and all its institutions and whatnot, but on the other hand, you had the Nazi party functioning as a parallel ruling body. This system of having two governing bodies often clashed with each other, and people within the Nazi hierarchy often plotted and intrigued against each other to gain the favor of Hitler. Hitler was happy to let them do this, he even encouraged it - as long as the results benefited him. Nazi officials often had overlapping roles, and these roles often overlapped with government institutions, creating a chaotic administrative system. We knew that we wanted to have this represented early on - but we struggled for a long time to get it right. Finally, Arheo and ManoDeZombi found a very (imho) interesting solution.


The people of the Inner Circle will try to ascend within the Nazi hierarchy

So how will we represent the in-fighting between these fellas and the parallel administrative system that existed? By letting each one of them work on and complete focuses in their own mini-branch. This means that you will be able to work on multiple focuses at the same time.


An Ascending Reichsleiter will work on and complete his own set of focuses

If you paid close attention you will have noticed that the GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the Inner Circle is shaped like a pyramid with Mister Mustacheman himself on top, and three empty slots just under him. And some of you might already have guessed that you can only have three Reichsleiters ascending (that is, working on their own focuses) at the same time. Yes indeed, you can only have three Reichsleiters simultaneously completing focuses.


Only three Reichsleiters can Ascend within the Inner Circle at the same time

The cool thing though, is that you can swap out which of the Reichsleiters you want to ascend within the Inner Circle, which means that you can prioritize different things depending on your needs.


Swap out your Inner Circle depending on your current and future needs

This doesn’t mean that swapping out one Reichsleiter for another will save you from the jaws of defeat; it takes them quite some time to complete the focuses they work on.


Letting a Reichsleiter ascend within the Inner Circle takes time and investment

Besides, why would you even want to let someone ascend within the Inner Circle? Well, they all offer different bonuses based on their historical roles. You can see their traits and bonuses both in the new UI in the Focus Tree, by hovering over the portraits, and in the National Spirit tab.


All Reichsleiters have their unique traits and bonuses

Worth mentioning, most of these advisors have a small daily PP cost when ascended, which increases once they complete their second focus in their branch. On the other hand, your Party Chancellor (be it Bormann or Hess), will grant you daily PP bonus which counters part of the PP cost from the others, so if you are not swimming in PP it might be a good idea to save one of the Ascending slots for the Party Chancellor of your choice.

Another reason why you’d let someone ascend is if you want to swap out Hitler. Who needs that low-life scumbag anyways, right? Surely Himmler, Göring, or Goebbels could do a better job! Or why not maybe Hess? They all seem like very reasonable and stable people…. Yes, this is how you get to play with an alternative Führer. They keep their Inner Circle traits and get a new one to boot!


A new Führer has Ascended

How do you go about usurping Hitler then? Well, first off, you have to have three Reichsleiters completing all of their focuses they can complete and then finish A Strong Successor.


Whoever will you choose to become the new Führer

We hope you like this new feature and find it interesting! It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (mostly ManoDeZombi’s) to get this working. One of the main goals of this system was to declutter a bit the otherwise-overcrowded political advisor list, so players can choose different political advisors within the three political advisor slots, while still being able to pick among historically party figures in the Inner Circle, which can in turn evolve and provide different bonuses and effects on their own, allowing the player to utilize the invaluable focus time in whatever branches they consider most important.

Moving on, we would like to mention a small system that we didn’t have the time to talk much about in the first German Dev Diary, and that is quite interesting and can prove to be pretty useful if you are planning on expanding your influence across the Ocean, and challenge the USA’s hegemony in America.

Hello again, Malin Monroe (it’s actually Nattmaran though) here to talk about the Monroe Doctrine. We’ve all come to know the Monroe Doctrine through Trial of Allegiance, but as a recap; the Monroe Doctrine was USA’s attempt at keeping the peace in America, primarily to make sure no one else, and certainly not someone hostile, got a foothold that close to them. Of course, the Germans however, would most certainly have liked to have a foothold that close, and we wanted to represent this in game.


The focuses below Crossing the Atlantic are meant to give you the tools to challenge the USA’s military and influence over America


Decisions on the map will appear to sway American countries, once you have brought at least five countries into opposition, you will be allowed to destabilize the doctrine once and for all.

The decisions are rather straightforward, you can bolster sentiments to boost the popularity of fascism in the target country. A fascist country is more likely to oppose the Monroe Doctrine. You are not alone in this endeavor however, the United States will be alerted of your actions, and like you, they might very well start their own campaign in search of support. Once you have garnered enough support (which is actually opposition) you can click the button, and demand the dismantling of the Monroe Doctrine, and as such, you will most likely have a good landing point for further American crusades, invasions and expansions.


Finally we are rid of some of the guarantees…when I took these screenshots, it came at a high cost however…

And we have one last system we need to talk about before wrapping up this Dev Diary, namely-

And now for the new Reichskommissariat mechanics, brought to you by D3vil and ManoDeZombie.

Hi, it’s me, Jonathan here again to now introduce all of you to the new mechanics and content surrounding the Reichskommissariats! Starting off with how to get them, you will enable the mechanic after completing the focus Uplift the Rosenberg Office near the top of the fascist part of the focus tree.


The focus in question.

Alfred Rosenberg, head of the Reichskommissariat projects, will not show up as a regular national spirit or advisor. Instead, he will show up in his own GUI in the decision category, and you will be able to see what effects he grants by hovering over his icon.


Alfred Rosenberg.

Now I hear you asking, why would I create these puppets when I could just occupy the territory normally? Well about that, as explained previously, the MEFO bills/Economy of conquest grows ever more taxing the more non-core territory you occupy yourself, not counting puppets. Apart from that, these special puppets have various bonuses to both their leaders and national spirits, and not only that, because Alfred Rosenberg gets stronger the more Reichskommissariats you create.


Alfred Rosenberg becoming stronger when founding a Reichskommissariat.

As seen in the image above, creating Reichskommissariats also gives you the choice of what kind of leadership you want to instate. One of them being a German governor who is better at keeping resistance down and granting more resources for you, the other being a local collaborator, one who will be better at gaining compliance in the Reichskommissariats-owned territories. The new Reichskommissariats do not have any cores, similar to Italian East Africa, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem due to the bonuses they possess.


The event you get when creating a Reichskommissariat.
Reichskommissariats also possess a new type of ownership referred to as contested ownership, where, apart from their established capital state, they do not actually own states unless you own them first before selecting their respective decision. This helps to not mess with the surrender progress of the nation you are invading, for example the Soviet Union, so that you won’t have to push past the Urals because you founded RK Ukraine, whilst also ensuring that not only the capital (for example Kiev for RK Ukraine) counts for the Reichskommissariats own surrender progress.


How contested ownership looks.

From the beginning, only European Reichskommissariats are available to you, but there are a few focuses that can enable the creation of such states in other continents as well.


All of the Reichskommissariat focuses.

And as one final thing before moving back to Paradox_Danne, here is how the world looks when having created every possible Reichskommissariat.


The New World Order.

Paradox_Danne here one last time for this Dev Diary, just to say that’s it from us! All of these systems and mechanics are part of the German rework and won’t require the Götterdammerung DLC, but will be baked into the base game. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this Dev Diary about German Systems. We hope these systems will distinguish Germany from any other nation, and more importantly, that you feel they’re interesting and fun. But wait, we’re not quite done with Germany just yet! We still have to talk about the alt-historical branches for Germany; how will we handle the old Democratic and Imperial branches, and will there be a Communist one? Who knows! Tune in for the next, and last, German Dev Diary coming later. But before that, why not stop by to read the very next Dev Diary that’s coming on October 28th about Raids? And if that doesn’t sound too interesting, we have Belgium to look forward to as well!

Tschüss

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Hey everyone! I'm Plankie, one of the game programmers on hoi4, and one of my favourite parts of developing a game is to work on the game AI. So when I was asked, almost a year ago, whether I wanted to take charge of a small AI feature, I was delighted! The goal of this feature was to make the AI better at concentrating their hardest and meanest divisions instead of spreading them out along an entire front line. This is something we've wanted to do for a long time and with the Germany-focused Götterdämmerung expansion, we had the perfect opportunity. We call this feature AI Force Concentration, or AIFC for short (an acronym which has caused many football-related jokes in the team).

Well, first of all, the AI has frankly not been very good at handling their armoured divisions. Sure, they produce tanks and assign them to fronts, but they are seldom concentrated enough to actually pose a threat for the defender.
Second, the AI always pushed along the entire front with equal effort. There's nothing strictly wrong with that, but most military operations have a strategic goal like capturing a city or a supply hub rather than just taking ground, so making a concentrated offensive effort towards a specific goal seems more realistic and human-like.
Third, we want to make the combat gameplay more dynamic and interesting for you as a player. If the enemy concentrates more and better divisions in a certain sector, it requires you to make choices. Should you meet the anticipated offensive head on, will you lure them into a trap, or use the opportunity to attack somewhere else?


The days before Operation Barbarossa. The AIFC divisions are visible in the right picture as the turquoise army, preparing to quickly take a supply hub in Volyn when the war kicks off.

For the most important fronts, the AI considers whether it wants to concentrate its forces. If it has enough units available to both hold the line and still allocate units for offensive duty, then it will create an AIFC army. This army will receive the "best" divisions along the frontline, taking into account factors like attack and breakthrough stats, how experienced they are, how fast they can move, and so on.

The AI then evaluates possible targets close to the front line, for example supply hubs, ports, large cities and so on, and it finds a path from the front line to the chosen target. This path is determined according to the path-of-least-resistance principle, which essentially means that it tries to avoid river crossings, bad terrain, fortifications and so on, while also following railway lines in an attempt to avoid ending up in a situation where it can't supply the troops.


The paths evaluated by Germany before Barbarossa.

The AIFC armies follow those paths-of-least-resistance and will continuously update their orders to make sure that the front lines match up with the intended path. Of course, since placing too many units too close together might cause some problems with your Amazon deliveries (a.k.a. your supply situation), they will spread out somewhat along the neighboring provinces.

But as they say, "a plan never survives contact with the enemy". This can be true for the AI as well. Because of this, it keeps track of how well an AIFC offensive is going. If the offensive is going well, by all means let's continue pushing. But if it stagnates and fails to make progress towards the target, then the AI sooner or later decides that the plan indeed didn't survive the enemy contact, and it tries to find another target for its next offensive. Similarly, if the offensive succeeds and the target is taken, the AI will start looking for new opportunities to concentrate their forces and break through, taking into account the newly conquered areas as a potential start of the offensive.

In order to make it feel like the AIFC behavior is not static, the degree to which it is used is (mainly) tied to the doctrines an AI has unlocked. This means there will be a difference between for example fighting an early war Soviet Union compared to a late war Germany. Doctrines which narratively and stats-wise promote a higher force concentration will make the AI prefer using AIFC to a higher degree (fully scriptable of course, so all our wonderful mod creators can play around with it).


On the receiving end of an AIFC offensive.

Thomas here now to add some more info about a selection of other things we have been working on. Aside from the AIFC, we have - as we tend to do - tried to touch up things here and there during the development of Götterdämmerung. So let’s take a quick look at some of the other smaller features and changes we have done:

The tech tree has as mentioned in the Special Projects Developer Diary received a few new techs relating to Special Projects. But those are not the only changes we have made to it. We have also added a few new techs to make research and gameplay slightly more diverse, and give you a few more options.

First of all we have added a few new Transport Plane Techs and related tech and equipment icons. The main benefit of researching these is that your transport planes gain more range, allowing you to paradrop or supply your troops at a greater distance.


One cannot have too many Junkers, right?

The other, slightly bigger change we have made is to Forts. Previously everyone could build level 10 forts everywhere from the get go. Now the max fort level depends on the terrain the fort is in, and the techs you have researched - as well as other modifiers you can get from e.g. focuses. This means the engineering tab has received 5 new techs for forts - one general, and two each for Land Forts and Coastal Forts.

Initial maximum fort levels, without techs or other country specific modifiers are set to 6 for all Coastal Forts, and Land forts are as follows:
Plains: 5
Hills: 5
Urban: 5
Forest: 4
Mountain: 4
Desert: 4
Jungle: 3
Marsh: 3
(Note that values might change before release. Yes I know that I’ve said this already, but just to make sure the message gets across :) )


The new fortification techs,


Here we have upped our fortification capabilities a bit, just need to construct the actual forts

We have also slightly changed how the Command Power Cap works. Now your High Command will actually increase the Command Power Cap, so that with a good set of military commanders, you will have more Command Power at your disposal. This should make it less punishing to build up your high command, rewarding you for having a competent staff.


By adding von Rundstedt to our staff, we increase the Max Command Power by 20

As Mentioned in other dev diaries, there are now Dams in the game. They can be targeted by Raids which makes them a bit of a liability, but not by strategic bombing so they are relatively safe. What do they do? Their main effect is that they boost the state they are in, making it easier and better to invest in industry there. You can’t build new dams except through specific focuses.

Another thing you can see on the map, and that several of you have already noted in previous diaries and streams are what we call Landmarks. First of all, these look super cool on the map, and make countries more unique. But additionally they have small country level effects. A bit like National Spirits, but as buildings on the map. The cool thing with these bonuses is that they only apply to the country that originally owns the Landmark, so by capturing for example the Statue of Liberty, you can deny the USA their bonuses, but you won’t get them yourself.


A landmark in the UK

In order to make the difference between State and Province effects a bit easier to see at a glance we have made some changes to the State and Province UI. The main focus of these changes were to ensure that Province Effects are in the lower part of the window, and state effects are in the upper section.
A special area for all state effects and a summary of all state related effects from buildings has been added at the bottom of the “State section”.

Some of the more unique Province level buildings, such as Dams, Landmarks, and Experimental Facilities, are displayed in the “Terrain section”, while the rest are displayed beneath it as before.


The upper section, marked in yellow in this image, contains things that are relevant for the entire state, so e.g. state related modifiers have been moved up there. Down in the bottom section, we have collected all the info that relates to the province, such as terrain, weather, victory points etc. Not a drastic change in any way, but hopefully it should be a bit easier to understand what relates to what.

We have also done some minor quality-of-life updates to the Area Defense settings. First of all, no specific settings are active by default when you open it up (unlike the old behavior where all settings were activated by default). Instead, if no special setting is specified, the divisions will spread out as evenly as possible in the selected area. We changed this since a very common pattern when using Area Defense was to immediately unselect all the options one wasn't interested in, which led to a lot of unnecessary clicks.


The new Area Defense settings for guarding borders and special project facilities (red arrows), and the updated supply setting (orange arrow).

The supply setting has received some small changes: Instead of trying to cover the supply hubs and ALL the railways, it will now cover supply hubs and railway junctions. It has also received a new icon depicting a supply crate instead of the previous railway icon. We have also added two new settings to Area Defense: Guarding borders, and guarding special project facilities.


The new Area Defense setting for guarding borders

All horses aren’t bays, or browns for that matter. This is something one of our artists, who happens to really like horsies, was very aware of and wanted to do something about. So after having convinced one of the programmers that this was a brilliant idea, they set out to make a few new textures and ensured that the horsies in the game now have more varied and realistic colours.


I assume these would be Hanoverians…

That was a selection of the things we have been working on aside from the major features for Götterdämmerung. Of course, we have been up to more things. There is always some balancing, tweaking, and bug fixing work going on. And fixes to code and to the AI in general. We have made some changes to how we script things for example, that we hope to describe more in the upcoming modding diary (together with some other cool stuff). But for now, we hope that you have enjoyed this diary.

Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1

Guten Tag oder guten Abend depending on when you’re reading this!

Me, Paradox_Danne and ManoDeZombi will guide you through the big boi; the myth, the legend, the one and only - the German Focus Tree. Yes, you read that right (and probably expected as much), Germany is getting a (much-needed) facelift. But what does this mean? It means that most of the old base Focus Tree is getting yeeted out, and replaced with a reworked version. Now, before we go any further, please remember and keep in mind that this is very much a WORK IN PROGRESS, which means, but is not limited to, missing icons, placeholder texts, and weird modifiers. Things might and will change, so feedback is very much appreciated so we can make the best possible German content possible. We know you’re eager to delve into this, so let’s get moving!

I think we all know this part of history pretty well, but let’s quickly recap where Germany was at the beginning of 1936 and what it's gone through. After the defeat in the Great War, harsh stipulations were put on Germany, with the Treaty of Versailles causing resentment and economic hardship. Hyperinflation and political instability defined the early 1920s, and the Great Depression in 1929 led to rising support for extremists like the Nazis. By 1936, Hitler had become the absolute ruler of Germany and started to rearm, breaking the Treaty of Versailles.


The country select screen for Germany, a TL:DR for the historical context

What’s that? New National Spirits and Focuses?! Oh, we’ll get to the new Focuses - either in this Dev Diary or an upcoming one, don’t you worry ;) But let’s start with the political situation in Germany in 1936:


The Political Situation for Germany in 1936

As you can see, the Führer himself got a facelift as well. But what might be more interesting are the new National Spirits:


The National Spirits in 1936 for Germany

Out of all of these, the reworked MEFO Bills might be the most interesting one, but it’s also the one we won’t be discussing today; that’s for another day and another Dev Diary about German Systems, so stay tuned. What I will say is that Germany was nowhere near ready for WW2 when they invaded Poland, and we kind of want this to be better represented. You now have to build up your strength, and this means that Germany is receiving quite the nerf without actually getting that many negative modifiers. Other than that, what might jump out is the new military Spirits, which have been split into three separate entities; Heer, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine. They all have different maluses, representing difficulties they battled with.

Germany initially saw great success with their Bewegungskrieg doctrine (popularized as Blitzkrieg) when they invaded Poland and France and subjugated both nations in lightning-fast campaigns. But as they tried the same tactics yet again against the Soviets, the vastness of Russia soon put a strain on German logistics they never really overcame. The German High Command had misjudged the sheer size of the Eastern steps, and the resistance they would face.

The Kriegsmarine never saw a truly major, direct engagement with the Royal Navy - but when they did fight, the Germans mostly lost. The Battle of the Atlantic saw initial German success, but they suffered heavy losses. They lost most of their heavy-hitting ships, such as Bismarck, Tripitz, Admiral Graf Spee, and Scharnhorst in various engagements.

The Luftwaffe was very effective and devastating early on, especially in its campaigns against Poland and France, and enjoyed technical superiority as the war broke up. But underneath it suffered from internal strife and poor leadership (looking at you Göring) among other things. It took heavy losses during the Battle for Britain, and never truly recovered.

So that’s Germany at the outset of 1936. But can you improve these National Spirits, I hear you wonder. And how do you do that? Can you change your fate? Must Germany face defeat in the skies over Britain, or among the ruins of Stalingrad? I suppose you want to see the new, reworked Focus Tree, don’t you? Can’t blame you; I’ve been eager to show it off for quite some time now! So without further ado:


The Reworked Historical German Focus Tree

Yes, it’s chunky - and this is only the Historical and Common branches. It’s big, but it has a ton of 35-day focuses. And if you look closely you’ll see something completely new, something never before seen in HoI4


The Inner Circle

This is yet another new system for Germany and something we sadly won’t discuss today either, but sit tight; it’s coming up in a future Dev Diary with the MEFO Bills.


The Military and Industrial Branches

Something that definitely can be said about every part of the new Focus Tree compared to the old one is that it’s bigger - you won’t be starving for things to do. And that is kind of the point; you will have to prioritize; what is absolutely necessary to have achieved before going on a world-conquering rampage to war? Germany wasn’t ready when they faced Poland and France. They more or less got lucky in France and Poland. Don’t get me wrong, they achieved some stunning victories and shocked the world with how fast they conquered Europe, but in the end, they were ill-prepared to wage a drawn-out war, especially after invading the Soviet Union and facing off against the USA. But how can you avoid their missteps? What will see you knocking down the gates of the Kremlin or cruising past the Statue of Liberty in your battleships? We’ll soon find out, but first, we need to take a look at your starting commanders.


Germany now starts with fewer Generals and Field Marshals, but more can be unlocked through various focuses, while others might get retired.

As the more astute of you may have noticed, certain generals and field marshals are missing. Where did they go, and can you get them back? Why yes, of course!


The Army branch allows you to specialize your army with an emphasis on either tanks or infantry and artillery

It’s in the Army Branch you unlock several generals and promote others to field marshal. The important choice in this branch is how you want to shape your army; do you want to rely on new tech and tactics using tanks, or do you want to expand upon the lessons from the Great War? Both options will offer different bonuses from each other and will unlock different generals. But the different paths also unlock two different Decisions to help you out with invading neighbouring countries strolling past those tedious border checks - so you don’t have to declare what you got in your luggage. You will simply speed right through. Let’s take a look at what makes the different paths so different.


Honoring The Prussian Legacy will steer your army toward infantry and artillery, rather than the historical focus on tanks.

I think the big question here is “What the Hell is Operational Planning?” That my friends, is how you speed past those pesky border checks by taking a decision that bolsters your military for a short while. This is of course meant to simulate Germany’s “blitzkrieg” during WW2, but is focused on a more traditional approach instead of tanks. (“Blitzkrieg” was never an official doctrine, but rather a term applied to Germany’s old and tested Bewegungskrieg tactics, which was all about maneuver warfare.) So what does this Operational Planning look like, how do you use it and what benefits does it have?


Operational Planning will yield a State Modifier in a country you are at war with, giving you an edge in those states

A fully maxed-out Bewegungskrieg will look like this. Operational Planning is specifically designed to not make Germany too overpowered, while still giving some nice military bonuses and at the same time representing the lightning-fast invasion they are so famous for. The state modifiers will last 90 days, and the decision will be repeatable once a year to simulate the various offensives Germany launched throughout its Russian campaigns. Another cool thing you get from The Prussian Legacy path is this new Support Company, called Sturmtruppe


The Sturmtruppe Battalion is an elite force meant to help break through enemy lines and fortifications

But what happens if you want to go down the historical route and have your panzer divisions steamroll the enemy? Luckily, there’s an option for that too!


The Blitzkrieg state modifier puts an emphasis on tank warfare

While the Blitzkrieg state modifiers might not last as long as the Bewegungskrieg one, they’re packing quite a punch nonetheless. And choosing to develop your panzer forces will unlock two familiar faces:


Taking Adopt New Panzer Doctrine will unlock both Rommel and Guderian as generals and military advisors

To round this part off, let’s check out what a maxed-out Deutsches Heer looks like by completing the Army Branch and compare the bonuses from The Prussian Legacy and Adopt New Panzer Doctrine paths with each other:


The left picture shows a fully developed Heer after completing the Adopt New Panzer Doctrine path, and the right picture shows a fully developed Heer after completing The Prussian Legacy


The Luftwaffe branch

The important choice to make here, is how you want to specialize the Luftwaffe; will you go down the historical route and focus on dive bombers and CAS, or shift your doctrine towards tactical or strategic bombers?


The different bomber doctrines will yield different bonuses

If you want to fix the issues that plague the Luftwaffe you have to Reorganize the Luftwaffe and Solve the Logistical Bottlenecks, but you can’t do that while Göring is in charge. Speaking of the Devil, he’s got a wholly unique trait to reflect the central position he held, not only in the Luftwaffe, but within the Nazi regime as a whole


Herman Göring now has the trait of Reich Marshal, which will allow him to produce more aircraft

If you decide that you don’t need him, you’ll unlock Helmut Wilberg, who historically played a major role in developing German air warfare and combined arms tactics - but since he was of Jewish descent you can’t hire him with a Fascist Government (he was so crucial and competent though that Göring himself helped hide this fact). While the Luftwaffe can’t be improved a whole lot, you’ll gain a lot of bonuses toward Special Projects for Rockets and Jets, and a whole bunch of timed ideas, and by far the most Aces in any focus tree (ALL aces from WW2 with 100 or more victories are German, but only roughly 50% survived unscathed).


A fully developed Luftwaffe could look like this


The Kriegsmarine Branch will give you hegemony over the seas - and under them

The Naval Branch works in a slightly different way than most other branches; there are no mutually exclusive choices here, but you will be forced to prioritize nevertheless. You cannot work on both the Plan Z and Trade interdiction paths at the same time; once you’ve started one of those paths, the other one gets locked, until you have completed The High Seas Fleet or Unrestricted Convoy Raiding respectively - and once you complete one of those focuses, the rest of that path gets locked. This got convoluted real quick. Let’s try with an example: Say you finish Trade Interdiction first; this will lock you out from even beginning the Plan Z focus. To unlock that focus, you will have to complete Unrestricted Convoy Raiding, but this will also lock you out from doing any more focus under Trade Interdiction. In the end though, you get a much stronger Kriegsmarine, and completing Seeherrschaft yields even further goodies


A fully realized Kriegsmarine could look like this, together with Seeherrschaft

Something I’ve only touched upon but haven’t delved any deeper into is the Special Projects bonuses that Germany can get, which is a central theme and mechanic of this expansion. Germany famously tried to turn the tides of the war by putting their hope in these “miracle” weapons, but their doom was already sealed. But what if they put more effort into this earlier? Well, you can do that now, and the results come with one of the coolest icons in the game


Wreak havoc upon the world with your glorious wunderwaffen


The choice of Industrial path will have big ramifications on how you play as Germany

Hellbent on becoming self-sufficient, Hitler launched the 4-Year Plan in 1936. The goal was to strengthen the industries so he could carry out an ambitious and rapid rearmament program. Going down this path will make you stronger in the short term, but will leave you open to other problems caused by the MEFO Bills (which, you will remember, we won’t talk in-depth about in this Dev Diary). Suffice to say, the Four Year Plan will put a strain on your economy, but you’ll be ready for war sooner. This strain will be somewhat offset by, not one, but two unique laws for Germany and this path; Autarky and Totaler Krieg. Both new laws come with a price though; it will either remove another law or lock others from being accessible.


Autarky Efforts will unlock the new Trade Law of Autarky, but locks other laws in turn


The second unique law is the Economic Law of Totaler Krieg

This particular path is closely tied with the MEFO Bills, which we will talk more about in a later Dev Diary, and the impact it has on your economy. For now, though, let’s look at the non-historical Industrial path, which starts with Prioritize Economic Growth.


Prioritize Economic Growth will absolutely gut your economy, but you can rebuild it stronger than ever

This path will ruin your economy, but fear not, because down the line you can rebuild it, stronger than ever. In pure numbers, you’ll get more factories from this path, but they take longer to come by. You even get more building slots, leaving room for even more factories. The trade-off is that the focuses take longer to complete and are locked behind tech and stuff. You might also notice that this focus unlocks a new advisor, Ludwig Erhard. This was the man behind the “German Economic Miracle”, or Wirtschaftswunder, after WW2 which this path is loosely based on.


After having paid off the MEFO Bills you’ll have a Recovering Economy with plenty of penalties but that can flourish into the Wirtschaftswunder

And just for funsies, let’s compare a fully developed Wirtschadftswunder with the evolved version of the MEFO Bills, namely the Economy of Conquest (mainly because I wanted to leave you all with a cliffhanger; whatever could Economy of Conquest be?)


Wirtschaftswunder vs Economy of Conquest and Wehrwirtschaft

And now, onward to the really juicy bits - the political branch!

This part of the focus tree was mostly designed by the one and only ManoDeZombi , but he’s frantically doing other stuff, so I’ll walk you through the political branch. As you already have seen we have expanded the historical path for Germany quite a bit and changed existing focuses. We have built the new Focus Tree around the core of the old so that some things will be familiar.


The Political Branch is structured so that Far Eastern foreign policies are to the far right, European policies are in the middle, while Internal politics are to the left.

The beginning of the political branch starts as before, with Remilitarize the Rhineland, whereafter you can decide where you want to take the Reich; perhaps focusing on re-establishing the old German colonies throughout Asia and Africa, to eventually invading the USA from the West, or influence the Middle East and secure beneficial trade deals for those countries, or tie the Baltic states and Scandinavia closer to you. There are plenty of possibilities here! But before we travel to the Far East and see what you can do there, let’s take a minute and explain something you probably have seen throughout this Dev Diary and the focus tree and are wondering about - what the hell is this:


Introducing Historical Frames

These are new icon frames meant to help players understand which focuses were historically taken - they act as a visual guide. Since this Focus Tree is pretty big (way bigger than the Soviet or Italian ones) we wanted to highlight and differentiate the historical path from alt-historical options. Oh, some of you don’t like these handy guides? Fret not, we got you covered!


You can easily turn the Historical Frames guide on and off with the push of a button


The Far Eastern path allows you to reclaim old colonies and align more closely with either China or Japan and decide how you want to handle the Soviets and/or the USA.

This path is all about cooperation and negotiation to get your old Asian colonies back, and getting claims on your old African possessions. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide if you want to approach the Chinese in order to take down the Japanese, or if you’d rather strengthen your ties with Japan for a more advanced navy and go after the USA. A little bit to the left, and West as it were geographically, you’ll find focuses concerning the Soviet Union. These largely remain the same as in the old Focus Tree, except that the unholy Berlin-Moscow Axis you get through Alliance with the USSR only lasts two years now; an alliance between these countries would never have lasted anyway. So you’ll have your cake and eat it too in the sense that you can turn your attention to the Western front without worrying about the East, but also rolling your panzers across the wide-open Russian steppe and knocking on the gates to Moscow. It’ll just have to wait a little while longer ;)


An alliance of convenience with the Soviets will make you both stronger when eventually facing off

Now, let’s turn our gaze towards Europe - the bread and butter of the Historical branch. As we already stated, we built this part around the old focus tree, just adding bits and pieces here and there. You might notice that there’s now a focus for Operation Sealion and an entire mini sub-branch for tackling the Americas. There are also alternative focuses for using diplomacy to sway countries to your side, instead of having your panzers run over everyone - if you like that kind of thing. Me, I prefer my enemies as flat as possible ;)


Do you want to conquer all of Europe by force or would you rather use diplomacy to get your way? Some conquering may be required

You’ll notice that before you can do Anschluss and use Austria as an appetizer, you have a choice to make; are you siding with Ribbentrop to Reorganize the Wehrmacht or will you Heed von Neurath’s Concerns? The first option will lead to the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and a non-aggression pact with the USSR, and the dismissal of several of your generals. The reorganization of the Wehrmacht was a very important event in Germany in 1938 just before the outbreak of war and is how Hitler assumed direct control of the armed forces as Supreme Commander. The second option will instead have you listen to the concerns of von Neurath and the Wehrmacht, which will prepare you for the wars to come. The downside is of course that you won’t have that non-aggression pact with the Soviets…. Oh well, it can’t be that important.


Do you Reorganize the Wehrmacht or do you Heed von Neurath’s Concerns?

Having made your choice you now face a revamped Anschluss, as alluded to by Nattmaran in the Austrian Dev Diary (go read it if you haven’t!). The requirements to start this focus have changed, and while the numbers might seem ludicrously high, you have to remember that Austria doesn’t have a big army to begin with, and is severely hampered to expand it. Basically, what you need is a bigger army than the Austrians, and it has to be well-equipped. Having gobbled up Austria, the world is your oyster! One final thing before we start looking into our new (and old) advisors and 3D models, we have one last mini branch to look at.


To Bribe Senior Officers was a very real thing and part of the reason why so many generals remained loyal to Hitler

Some of you may be wondering why there haven’t been any mentions of a Balance of Power for Germany - and that’s because there is none. We just wanted to spell that out so no wild speculations are going on as to what it might entail. Something else we didn’t touch upon on this Diary was the Reichskommissariats, and that’s because they’ve been expanded upon and new features have been added to it. But that’s for another time and another Dev Diary - namely (you guessed it) for the German Systems.

Regarding the SS divisions, the system has been reworked a bit. SS Divisions are now unlocked by the focus Expand SS Divisions which will not only allow for the recruitment of foreign SS units, but it will right away spawn some historical German units. Infantry battalions within these divisions are now represented as Militias. These militias can also be significantly improved by Himmler within the Inner Circle system. And they also got a new model!


The focus Expand SS Recruitment unlocks the recruitment of SS divisions.


And these militias have gotten a new 3D model too!

Phew, we’re nearly done! Thanks for sticking around this long (and it’s been quite a long read) - we’re nearly done now. With all of the Focus Tree finally being discussed, let’s turn to internal affairs, specifically advisors of all kinds, designers, and industrial concerns - because there are quite a few to go through! Let’s start with the advisors you can hire (and those you can’t ). There are way more advisors to choose from now; some are locked behind ideologies and others behind focuses. Quite a few of these can be “upgraded” and plenty have unique traits now.

Advisors


German political advisors

You might be wondering what happened to some of the more prominent historical figures, like Himmler, Goebbels, Speer, etc. Well, they are gone… from the political advisor roster, they now belong to the new Inner Circle system, we’ll go through it in detail in the German Systems Dev Diary in the near future.


German military theorists


German High Command


German Army, Navy, and Air Chiefs

MIOs (or rather Military Industrial Organizations) were added in the last major DLC Arms Against Tyranny where I was forced to expand the Danish Focus Tree beyond the two focuses they realistically should have had happily worked on Denmark and where ManoDeZombi made sure the Finns could stop the onslaught of the Soviet in… well, Finland. Anyways, Germany’s MIOs have also been expanded upon with unique traits and even organizations. Let’s do another blitz!


German Tank MIOs


German Ships MIOs


German Planes MIOs


German Material Equipment MIOs

And lastly, we have the Industrial Concerns, and guess what? There’s more of them too now!


German Industrial Concerns

In terms of 3D models, and without getting into Special project content, Germany has gotten a few nice additions:


You can now proudly deploy the old Leichttraktor


Some infantry models, including colonial troops unlocked by the Far East and Africa -related focuses


German soldiers are now way more comfortable under extreme weather thanks to the newest tactics developed by the Wehrmacht: rolling sleeves and furry hats!

And that’s more or less everything from us! Remember to look out for the next Dev Diary, which is all about Small Features. Among other things, this will dive into AI, Command Power and New Technologies. This will be airdropping on or near you October 21st.

Auf Wiedersehen!

(Note: We are also working on a video for Historical Germany; it will be added next week!)

Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1

Jó napot kívánok!



Jonathan here to bring you another Dev Diary for the upcoming DLC Götterdämmerung! I will be (re)introducing you all to Hungary. Originally we had planned to do a minor update to accommodate the Austria rework, but quite early on in the project we decided to give it a proper overhaul as we were going to rework it anyhow and felt it could do with one. Well, since it’s been a long time since the last Hungarian dev diary (7 years to be more precise), let’s start off with a bit of historical context!

Oh, and as usual, please do keep in mind that everything you’re about to see is still WIP so things might change before release and you may see some placeholder art and WIP values. The team thanks you for your understanding!


The new country select screen for Hungary, with a TL:DR for the historical context


A zoomed out overview of the Hungarian Focus Tree’s general layout

So to keep it very brief and as simple as possible; at the end of the Great War, Hungary, alongside other states such as Czechoslovakia and the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, broke off from Austria-Hungary in an attempt to avoid partition and blame for the war. History would not however be lenient on the Hungarian state, and through many twists and turns, the Treaty of Trianon was signed, leaving them with 92,962 of the 325,408 square km that had constituted the Hungarian crown, as well as with a practically completely dismantled military, and large reparations to be paid. The first Hungarian Republic had been declared, but was soon toppled and reorganized into the Hungarian Soviet Republic. In an attempt to reclaim lost territory the soviet republic entered wars against Cechoslovakia, Romania, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and the Hutsul Republic. All of this resulted in the destruction of the Soviet regime and a counterrevolution which in turn led to the reestablishment of the Kingdom of Hungary, where admiral Miklós Horthy would take up the role of regent, a role which he held until the Kingdom was disestablished at the end of the second World War.

I know that you all didn’t come for a history lesson, so let’s move on to Hungary’s starting situation in the game.


The National Spirits at startup for Hungary

Hungary now starts with four national spirits instead of the old usual one. As can be seen above however, this isn’t a purely negative thing for them, though the Treaty of Trianon has been made harsher to be more accurate to the historical stipulations. Apart from that one, Hungary starts with an economic dependency on Germany, as well as with two different types of active paramilitary organizations in favor of the government.

Apart from this, admiral and regent Horthy also shares a part of his power with Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös, who signed the previously shown treaty with Germany, and who seeks greater influence over Hungary's politics.


Miklós Horthy and Gyula Gömbös

And with this background and knowledge of the starting situation, we can finally jump into the focus tree, starting with the industrial and military branches!


An overview of the common branches, with the industrial tree on the left, and the military branches on the right.

As can be seen above, with the rework of the focus tree, I tried to keep it in similar shapes and general positions as the old one, so that the memory and muscle-memory of our old players won’t fail them when starting a new game as Hungary.

The Industrial branch on the left eventually leads into the military branches in the center and right, and contains most of the expected factories and research slots, whilst the air force, land forces and naval trees contain bonuses and effects that pertain to their respective branches of the armed forces.


These focuses which previously started the political branches, now start the industrial branch.

The main goal of the industrial branch is to get the Győr program up and running, in order to resuscitate national industries and expand Hungary military capabilities, a program historically launched by Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi.


A few of the effects and items relating to the Győr program.

The start of the military branch revolves around getting rid of the Trianon restrictions, just as it did before. With the right-most side of the land branch being available immediately, the more technology and industry focused parts on the left of it, as well as the air force branch, require the Győr program to have been started before becoming available.


The Air and Army branches.

That should be a good overview of the common branches, so let's move over to the real highlights: the political branches!

The focuses available to Historical Hungary

The general shape and feeling of the old Hungarian focus tree has been preserved, while being expanded upon. The main difference to the old Hungarian tree however is that historical Hungary, though joining the Axis, now stays as non-aligned under Horthy. The reason for this is that when seeking to gain peace with the Allies and the Comintern and betray Germany, Hungary was invaded and Horthy was replaced by German puppets (with a bit of a back-and forth), the leader and party of whom is now the fascist party for Hungary, with its own branch if they are what you want to play.

The tree starts with reinforcing the regency and the admiral's grip on the nation, while repairing it and repressing opposition groups. The latter half focuses on alliances (to the left) and expansion (to the right).


Some of the focuses and their effects

The ultimate goal of post-trianon Hungary is almost always to restore Greater Hungary in some shape or form, as will be seen in other branches as well.


Greater Hungary, restored.


And as historically, Gyula Gömbös will eventually die, leading to you having to decide on how to deal with the M.O.V.E, the paramilitary organization loyal to him.

But now, on to some alternative history, starting with the actual fascist branch.

The fascist branch begins with the same focus as the historical focus, deciding to continue the regency. After that though, things will start to change for Hungary.


The Hungarian fascist political branch.

Here you will start the game by having Gyula Gömbös attempt to overthrow Horthy and take the mantle of regent for himself. To do this he will strengthen the fascists, which in turn has some unintended consequences…


The Lead Up events to becoming fascist.


Gyula Gömbös and Ferenc Szálasi as country leaders.

Though I will not take too much of your time for this branch, here you can see some of the focuses available to the fascists in a bit more detail.


Some both early and later game focuses.


You can also embrace the Turanist ideas of Hungarian origin.

But that’s that. Now I think it’s time to show a lot of players’ most anticipated parts of the tree, the monarchist branches (Yes it is indeed in plural).

The monarchist branches start differently from the historical or fascist branches. There are a total of 5 different monarchist branches available to Hungary, that share certain parts with each other or with the historical/fascist branches. They revolve around Horthy deciding to actually name someone king, either choosing to comply with the stipulations laid out by the little entente and thus selecting a non-Habsburg monarch, or going against their will and doing just that, leading to some elevated tensions with your neighbours.


The monarchist branches in all their glory.

Before we go into detail on any of their specific branches, though there are only five branches, here are the six different country leaders you can get throughout these branches.


The different monarchs.

So starting on the right, and going to the left, first up we have the fascist king, which works relatively similar to the old version. The reason this is still around is to enable for a only slightly alt-hist Hungary, as well as being able to go a flavour-wise different route while still sticking with the Axis. Friedrich Franz’s two completely unique focuses are these:


The Fascist Kings focuses.

To the left of him lies the democratic king, which is no longer the only way for Hungary to go democratic, but which has been expanded to have a bit more to do, such as hold referendums to regain territory, reverse the Hungarian brain drain and get a head start on some nuclear projects, or even propose a union between themselves and Romania, forming Hungary-Romania. (And perhaps Carl V Wilhelm might want to return to claim the Swedish crown as well)


Some of the Democratic King’s focuses.

If none of these are to your liking however, but you still don’t want a Habsburg on your throne, perhaps Horthy has just the thing you are looking for. As seen previously, he or his more popular son can now be crowned king, and they have a chonky branch of their own.


Horthyist monarchist focuses.

Taking this or the democratic king path, the fascists will begin preparing to oust you, as they won’t endorse a new dynasty nor some liberal Swede. This takes the form of a short decision system, in which you can attempt to stamp it out before it has the chance to escalate to a civil war.


The Arrow Cross’ coup attempt.

But with those brief appetizers out of the way, it is time to move on to the main course, namely the Habsburgs, of which we will start with the last Habsburg ruler in Hungary, namely Palatine Joseph August.


Joseph August’s focuses.

His goal is to recreate Greater Hungary, unlike Otto who will attempt to restore Austria-Hungary.


Some highlighted focuses from the branch, including Hungary’s own “fifth empire” focus.

And now on to the last (but most certainly not least) of the monarchist branches, Otto’s Austria-Hungary tree!


The new Austria-Hungary branch.

Oh, and do not fret, for I have not forgotten @Nattmaran promising that I would show you what we refer to as the Austro-Hungarian joint focus tree, something accessible by not only Austria and Hungary when going down their relevant branches, but also by any of their puppets who were a part of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, such as Czechoslovakia, Croatia or Lombardy-Venetia, to name a few. This branch allows you and your “newfound friends” to jointly build up and increase the combined strength of the new Austro-Hungarian empire (or Danubian Federation if that is more your style).


The Austro-Hungarian JFT.

Otto’s new tree starts off with restoring the personal union between Austria and Hungary, now with Hungary as the “main part” of the union. While the tree however plays using the new puppet type of “Austro-Hungarian vassal state”, which was introduced in the Austrian dev diary, there are two avenues to annexing your puppets and gaining the old Austria-Hungary cosmetic tags, this being through the focus “A Thousand Year Federation” at the end of the joint focus tree and “Renovatio Imperii” at the end of Otto’s tree.

The foreign policy of Austria-Hungary can be very flexible, as it has the option to either formalize an alliance with a monarchist Germany if there is one, sign an agreement to join the Allies by calling back to the Grand Alliance, or to only trust family, and found the Habsburg Alliance. If you are rejected from joining another’s faction, the Habsburg Alliance focus will be automatically completed.

An image can say more than a thousand words (well I guess in this case because the images themselves contain words..), so I will now highlight some focuses and other interesting things in the Austro-Hungarian branch.


Some of Otto’s focuses.

And though many Habsburgs were mentioned in the Austrian dev diary, there are always more. Among those are Carl Pius of Spain, Vasyl Vyshyvanyi, Joseph Ferdinand of Tuscany, and Maria de Iturbide of Mexico. There are also other figures that can appear as you play, such as Ferdinand Pius of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Wilhelm of Wied, and George Bagration “to name a few”.

Enough about monarchism and traditionalism though, how about some republicanism?

The Republican branches in the focus tree.

The republican branches all start with preparing for the only required civil war in order to go down a certain political path in Hungary, where they will eventually oust Horthy from power and dismantle the regency. When the civil war is over, it will be time to choose who will lead, all of which will take you down different paths in the tree.


The possible republican country leaders, main three at the top.

Starting left to right of the branches we have Mihály Károlyi and the Second Republic branch, a democratic branch in which you will also have the option to elect any of the bottom two characters above to become your president. In this branch, the two main choices are between taking the diplomatic approach and attempting to formalize a Danubian Alliance, also unlocking the Austro-Hungarian joint focus tree, or to go for achieving Hungary's ultimate goal of reclaiming the lost lands, doing all in your power to restore Greater Hungary.


Some democratic focuses.

Now to the communist branches. The first one is Mátyás Rákosi and his Comintern-friendly branch, which centers around utilizing connections with the Soviet Union to build up the industry and military, eventually becoming their bulwark towards the west, acting as a strong minor power in the Comintern.


Some of Rákosi’s focuses.

And last but not least we have Béla Kun and his, well, Comintern unfriendly branch. As someone who was on good terms with Lenin, but who was nearly executed by Stalin, Béla Kun will attempt to establish his workers paradise in Hungary, no matter the costs. His ultimate goal, like that of many Hugnarians during this time, is to restore Hungarian borders, just like the reds tried to during the civil war. The end goal however in the branch, once you have achieved your peak form, is to take down Stalin’s empire of evil and bring an end to his Marxist-Leninsit charade.


Some of Kun’s focuses.

And before we end this, here is a quick peek at some advisors and such available to Hungary.


Political Advisors.


Generals at the start of the game.

And that’s all for today folks. I hope this brief introduction has wetted your appetites and has enticed you to load up a game of Hungary once the DLC drops. Up next is the big one that you have all been waiting for, Historical Germany brought to you by ManoDeZombi and Paradox_Danne.

Oh, and speaking of dev diaries, as a fun throwback I must say, we sure have come a long way since Death or Dishonor

Viszontlátásra!

Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1