Best Hearts of Iron 4 Mods 2018: Player-led Peace Conferences
Player-controlled Peace Conferences is on a much less grand scale than the others, but honestly I can’t imagine playing without it. For those who don’t know or are thinking of picking up the game, victory as part of a coalition doesn’t always bring spoils. As a result of the controversial peace conference system, allies will bid on captured territory. Countries who lose the will to fight (represented by a loss of territory equal in percent to the country’s unity rating) will be carved up by the victors after capitulating. Unfortunately, your allied AI isn’t always able to weigh these options well and often acts selfishly even when that would endanger the wider war effort. To help with this problem, the Player-led Peace Conferences mod puts you in the driver’s seat of any peace conference to make sure it ends in a way that most benefits you without the sabotage of your allies.
Best Hearts of Iron 4 Mods 2018: Formable Nations
Formable Nations is another small change that completely revamps how some nations play. In particular, any country looking to reclaim lost glory will find this mod extremely helpful. The rules for reforming a dead empire aren’t always obvious. This mod makes the conditions into a decision instead of a triggerable event. What that means on the player end is that the game now tells you exactly what conditions have to be met before you can reform the old nation and gives you the option to pull the trigger at your leisure. Making your conquests legal is vital for controlling rebellious elements, so this mod is an absolute must if you want to play a small expansionist power. It’s a godsend for countries like Ethiopia or the Arab nations.
Best Hearts of Iron 4 Mods 2018: Espionage
Simply titled but satisfyingly complex, Espionage fills in a major gap in the base game. For how vital a role espionage played in the actual war, it’s sorely lacking in the base game. It’s reduced merely to whether or not you have the better math nerds. Here, as in real life, you recruit your secret agents from the Universities and send them on dangerous assignments for Queen and Country (or whichever set of ideals your nation happens to uphold). Steal their tech, infiltrate their organizations, and arm the conquered. Promised updates have a great deal of promise, so this necessary mod looks set to enrich the game even more.
Best Hearts of Iron 4 Mods 2018: Hearts of Iron 1984
Hearts of Iron 1984 is a bit unique as it dispenses with the history to bring you the gameplay distilled into concentrated mid-century brutality. Frankly, it’s only ok in singleplayer but that was never its intended purpose. Where this mod really comes alive is with two friends and an evening to devote to the fighting. It’s as fun as it is tense trying to claw your way to the top while keeping your flanks secure. It’s an honest test of skill at the game. It also helps express the hopelessness and misery of Orwell’s infamous book in a new and terrible way. It’s one thing to read a book about the nightmarish state of affairs, it’s another entirely to get a couple hours into a play session and realize that you’re gleefully playing the villain in order to acquire that little tiny edge over your enemy.
Best Hearts of Iron 4 Mods 2018: Victoria 2 to Hearts of Iron 4 Converter
As with any Paradox game, this one is a must-have for the crazier fans like me. Making a true alternate timeline is possible with utilities like this. Mechanically, what Victoria 2 to Hearts of Iron 4 converter does is convert an end-game Victoria 2 save to be compatible with the 1936 start date of HOI4. What that enables is a single continuous game from 1836 to 1948. In combination with a copy of Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis IV, Victoria 2, and Hearts of Iron 4 (and their respective converters) you can play one continuous game from 769 CE to 1948. If the sweeping scope of a months-long endeavor to guide one nation through history for nearly 1200 years doesn’t excite you, Paradox grand strategy titles might not be for you.
