So I have played Hearts of Iron 4 for 26 hours since Monday night its consisted of one abysmal France playthrough and 3 Italy playthroughs, 2 failed, 1 failure was just not knowing what the actual **** was going on, the 2nd failure was a pretty epic fail, basically you get points to redesign divisions through combat, I used my points to make what I thought was going to be my new light tank brigades but turns out I was actually redesigning my infantry brigades to become light tank brigades and my economy could not handle making 33,000 light tanks for some reason by time I realised was too late the salt was real!!
Anyway third playthrough and I am finally at ease with the game, wrapped my head around most things and I have to say it is an absolute joy to play. You have the option to take off historical focuses so I did, from 1936-9 things went normal enough barring Japan not joining the Axis. As Italy I formed my own faction and it was basically and the Balkans with Spain and Portugal. Then the curveball happened, Germany and Soviets did the usual Molotov-Ribbentrop pact but rather than divide up Poland they went to War with one another in 1939, so being the megalomaniac I am I declared on Germany with my new found Mediteranean alliance.
This game is a winner, so much has been streamlined but it is most definitely for the better, gone is the micro intensive clickfest that was number 3, small portion of the fanbase is severely butthurt because you cannot make the exact German order of battle but who gives a fly ****? The industry is great, balancing lines to produce equipment, Battle planner is fun but you stil have to micro it at times. The game also looks great too, not without issues, AI can do some ridiculous things but then it can also do some stupendous things and leaves you gobsmacked.
few patches in and a DLC or two this game will be the best of its kind if it is not already, just a shame some people cannot differentiate the difference between micro and strategy. Anyway I have a German Reich to pillage
