There is not enough diplomatic or strategic inertia to prevent players from doing whatever they want, whenever they want to do it. Espionage usually fails in games because there are no secrets to steal. You are weaker if you order units around at a whim, so you plan and prepare for operations.Д«ut plans can be stolen.

You see, itвЂ™s important to draw up war plans because units get bonuses if they have time to reach their jump-off points and prepare for the attack. Planning also has one other interesting effect: it makes Hearts of Iron 4 one of the first strategy games IвЂ™ve ever seen with a convincing espionage model. Removing the fuss is crucial for keeping players focused on the big picture and not wrestling with minutiae. ThatвЂ™s a huge boon, because Hearts of Iron 4 has to scale from the highest level of command to the much more granular maneuvering of divisions and army corps. I donвЂ™t know how it can work so smoothly, because it seems like itвЂ™s ripe for AI screw-ups, but somehow it seems to function perfectly. ItвЂ™s like watching an animated map in a history book or an old-time newsreel. If you need to stop and set up a defensive position, you can draw the front line that you want to hold, and units will take up positions and dig in. You still have lots of flexibility, though: if you spot some unexpected resistance on a flank, you can draw a small line that diverges from your main attack, and a small group of units will peel off to engage. Line of departureДЄs units reach their first objectives, you can let them rest up and consolidate before trigging the next phase, and once again they spring into motion according to the plans you made beforehand. The AI will handle all the planning and preparation for those campaigns, shifting units into the theater until you give the order, and then your blitzkrieg commences like clockwork. With a few more button presses, you can divide your plans into distinct phases, set air support priorities, and objective markers. You can draw detailed campaign plans right on the map with just a few strokes of the mouse. The most impressive thing I saw was the planning interface. Everything theyвЂ™ve done is about letting you focus on the big picture without getting dragged down into the minutiae of factory management and requisitions. But what made Hearts of Iron 4 look so exciting was the toolset Paradox are giving to players.

These are familiar questions in strategic wargames, and not so very different from games like Axis & Allies. GermanyвЂ™s booming economy is all very well and good, but how many Panzer IVs can it churn out in a month? How many will you lose during your invasion of Poland, and will your diplomats convince the Soviet Union to stay true to its non-aggression pact? How many Stuka dive bombers should you produce, and which fighters will be escorting them? Since Hearts of Iron is about a specific war, it goes into much more detail than ParadoxвЂ™s other games.

Hearts of iron 4 demo