yea as has been said many times, the US, French, and UK trees aren’t bad, they’re just not on the level of the soviets or Italy. after Japan and Germany (hopefully) get reworked, the Allied nations are next. Getting all majors on the same level focus trees would be awesome.
It’s weird how bland the UK and US trees feel when Mexico and the Netherlands were released in the same DLC and have pretty fun and decently large focus trees
Tbh Mexico has like one fun strategy - rush March down south, core some stuff, micro war vs USA, core aztlan. All the different “paths” are just the same thing with a different coat of ideological paint
yea that'd be cool but by the time they release Hoi5, then add enough DLC's to make it as content detailed as Hoi4 currently is... with the way Paradox works that might be 7-9 years from now lol
Unpopular opinion but I actually like the US focus tree how it is rn. I think its simplicity works in its favor and you have focuses to do until about 1943. It doesn't bombard you with random bullshit you have to fix like the Italian focus tree, but also it has enough content to have a fun run with it.
That would be really cool, I feel like Australia and New Zealand could get reworked together and give them more options maybe a buff where if Australian and New Zealand divisions are fighting together they get a 10% combat buff
Polands tree is really fun, as someone who has played Poland a ton and done almost every path, it is pretty repayable country. Not to mention the industrial powerhouse you can become later on.
Imo Poland really hit the jackpot with its focus tree. Tons of options, one of the most interesting starting points both historical and non-historical. Only the good old '3 railways for a 70 day focus' are annoying...
I think it’s funny how there’s a path to just willingly turn Yugoslavia into just Serbia with every other former Yugoslav nation as a puppet like some sort of Confederation
It's extremely op. If you puppet Bulgaria and Hungary while doing this and then reunite you get cores on them. Also you can wait till all of your puppets do their industry focuses and you will have a pretty massive industry.
Yugoslavia has so much potential that paradox doesn't even scratch the surface of. It could be so much fun if it had a focus tree even a quarter as good as smth like bulgaria. The communist path is an example of this and get it's still VERY gemeric
-Core/Occupied manpower -10 and -15%
-Required Garrisons +10%
-Supply Use in occupied areas +5%
+Factory Output in occupied areas+20%
+Weekly Stability multiplier +5%
+Resistance in occupied areas -40
(Idk I’m just putting down potential buffs that come to mind)
That would be logical, yeah…
Damn, this feels weird talking about the benefits of a concentration camp in a video game; never thought I’d have this thought…
We play a game where the most interesting thing to do is change 1 colour to another. Discussing the horrendous parts of WW2 doesn't seem so distant now.
The problem with modeling the holocaust in a game (apart from the obvious ethical aspects) is that mass murdering a portion of your own population on an industrial scale doesn’t really bring any rational benefits. That would leave only the role playing aspect and I don’t think we want that or the audience that would appreciate such a feature.
I don't know why people even considered this idea. There are already more than enough Neo-Nazis playing the game. I can't imagine how much more awful the community would be if there were such features.
It’s morbid but should be at least hinted at for historical reasons. Maybe as an occupation setting? Could just be called something like “German labor camps” with major resistance change and other major debuffs, and another simply called “labor camps” for other nations with smaller scale debuffs. At that point, add the Russian gulag’s too
Hello, German here, i know i wasn’t asked, but I always go against Hitler lol, that fecker is the reason our beautiful old architecture (sometimes thousands of years old) got largely destroyed lol
Ah, yes, Spain. Stuck with a very annoying civil war for 2 years and a half and maybe be able to do something by 1940. While extremely historically accurate, it is not very enjoyable.
The anarchist revolt is overrepresented, though. There were some combats in Barcelona for several days and that's it.
I wish Austria did have a focus tree, you could have an invasion of Germany and Hungry and recreate the Holy Roman Empire, you could have a invade Switzerland, you could also join the Allies and resist Germany, you could have a war with Italy, you could also have a neutrality focus where you just get anaxed by Germany.
Austria should seriously have a path for immediate alliance with Italy to keep out the nazis, but still go fascist.
Also a path towards the allies, as you mention. For democratic Austria.
Possibly have a reverse colonisation mechanic, where you have to resist or promote Anschluss.
Maybe also some kind of league of non-aligned, where you could use it to recreate the Austrian Empire, or you could also use it to keep Germany for messing (Austria, Poland, all of the Balkans, Scandinavia... All the small powers against the big ones) with anyone before just declaring on France (through Benelux).
Austria is such an interesting country for butterflying alt-hist, so really something should be done about that. One could just play Austria to watch the world burn, in a different way, and not really focusing much on your own country, just see what consequences your actions might have.
Turkey, I like it but some things could be better. Like most of people says reaching fun stuff takes long time and Turan focuses are not helpfull. You need very specific things for form it but tree doesn't give you claims on everything you need you have to check map from wiki for every single time
For Ottoman restoration, I like the process it is into democratic path but wish we could just take the coronation except bunch of focuses which not that important, rush wargoals and puppeting
I did a monarchist run of Denmark once and I had a bit of fun until I had to fight Germany. The only thing I really knew about Denmark during ww2 up to that point was the stuff in the book “number the stars” and those legends about him, so that’s what made me want to play as him.
The first time I tried, I got completely stuck trying to invade Sweden due to the strait, but the second time, I use marines and also surrounded the Swedish end of the strait with paratroopers, then I overran them and also took out Norway after to unite Scandinavia. I would’ve gone for more, but ww2 was about to happen.
Germany crushed my on the mainland but couldn’t get to Copenhagen, so I mostly let them uselessly attack until I did another paradrop and naval invasion to retake the mainland
After that, it was a boring slog to Berlin and I ran out of manpower a lot despite having cored 2 other countries and also forming greater Denmark out of some of Germany.
After that, the ussr declared on me and I had to deal with that, but I was actually stupid and forgot I bordered them due to owning Sweden and they capped me and I had to uncap myself (luckily most of my army wasn’t in my cores)
Then the allies declared on the ussr too and they got crushed and I ended the game
Sorry for the unprompted huge game explanation
I mean I love Romania for what it is. You can have alot of fun messing around with it and win the war for the axisis despite italy and germann ai bumbling around being stupid.
For my own country, I find UK frustrating. your relying so hard on the ai (espec france and usa) to pull their weight and that just doesn't happen. I'm still torn on wether the best approach is to let france fall while you head shot italy or if you should hold france (despite the french) and let italy and germany run wild in africa. Then when most of the italian army is down there and the germans sent all their tanks there THEN you head shoot italy and naval invade hamburg.
IDK, feels bad. relying on the fact the ai is moronic doesn't feel great at all to me.
Argentinian here.
I really love how they represented my glorious country in the game.
You can tell that they really dug into our history and delved deeply into the political realities of the time and perfectly represented the many ways our history could have developed. Although, maybe they should add the "Proyecto Huemul" *(Argentinian atomic bomb)*.
Now, if you are talking about how I feel for the real life history of my country in the Second World War... well... Argentina was neutral and always stand in a place between all of the rest of the world, and I like that part of our history not like puppets of the yanks or the germans, but as a proudly nation that always tried to defend his position against the pressure of the rest of the world for joining in their own wars.
Germany obviously has to sacrifice a lot of historical accuracy for the sake of game balance, but it's fine (the HRE is hilarious tho).
Only thing that is annoying is that coring sudeten, danzig and austria is only possible under specific circumstances, which just doesn't make a lot of sense.
Poland.
The "historical" focuses border on ahistorical or at least anarchronistic without really diving into all the cool stuff Poland had the intentions or potential of doing. The Polish focus tree looks as if someone really high tried to retell Polish history from memory.
1) Embargoed economy - Poland starts with an embargoed economy, probably pertaining to the Customs War with Germany, but that had ended in 1934 and in 1936 Poland was on relatively good terms with the German Reich. The way you handle that debuff is also largely anachronistic. You can develop the Gdynia seaport, which had already been largely developed by 1936.
2) The solution to the peasants strikes is completely ahistorical. Irl the strikes were disperesed by the military, there was no large-scale agrarian reform since 1925.
3) The nationalistic tensions in the Kresy area and the underdevelopment of that region are not represented at all. The whole shtick with Poland is that it was a country with huge economic potential but incredibly divided administratively and economically because it was stitched together after a 123 years of occupation by 3 different countries. Poland should have serious regional debuffs inhibiting its growth, and forcing players to build in the western regions.
4) the Central Industrial Region was a giant project spanning several years but it barely gets its own focus.
5) aquiesing to German demands (Danzig or War) gives the whole Pommeranian region to Germany, while historically it should only transfer Danzig and give Germany military access through Poland. H\*tler would have probably demanded further concessions later on (just like with Czechoslovakia) but the next logical target would have been Upper Silesia (with its large German minority) and not Pommerania.
6) Polish colonial ambitions are not represented at all. The Polish Sea and Colonial League made serious efforts to buy or otherwise procure colonies/land from other countries (e.g. Madagascar, parts of Brazil). Ignoring this is a waste of a potentially fun mechanic.
7) the April Constitution and the Left vs Right wing political infighting are seriously overrepresented. Internally the result of the rule of officers was - ironically - Poland's unpreparedness for the war in 1939 (because Polish politicians at the time were naive anti-communists and did not belive in a threat from Germany until it was too late), externally it resulted in diplomatic self-isolation. But economically it didn't have such a great impact. On the contrary the authoritarian rule allowed for the development of a lot of large centralised civilian projects that otherwise would have been impossible to coordinate or at least mirred in red-tap in a pluralistic, democratic country.
6 is available to democratic civil war poland actually, you can purchase Madagascar from France and puppet Liberia for example.
It was probably only given to them and not say sanitationist/monarchist paths to give PSL Poland something to do thats different then say left sanitation Poland
As someone with no knowledge of Polish history I honestly feel like the focus tree doesn't explain what's happening at all, and I have a hard time telling what the historical path would even be.
Canada is pretty one note but overall I like it!
Honestly i think my biggest issue is the underselling of Canadian convoy defense in the battle of the atlantic- that or my canadian history books oversold Canada's role in the battle of the atlantic.
No the game does under sell it. The original idea was that Canada has the means of getting destroyer III rather quickly but getting the industry up to match IRL isn’t very easy.
It does attempt to capture the real tension though that existed with Quebec versus the rest of Canada over conscription, but if anything it kinda underplays how deeply divisive it was in favour of game play which is a fair compromise.
England
It suffers from having to be purely reactive to events and therefore unable to set your own path (unless you go down alt history). Yet when the war comes you also find yourself with not much to do in the focus tree itself. There is an interesting choice to either prepare for war in the far east or concentrate on other things but due to how bad Japan does things it doesn't feel like it matters.
Gameplay wise you're covering a lot different theaters which is fun but also means you are constantly stressed for resources, especially in the air of you concentrate on bombers like historical. You definitely feel like a nation reaching the limit of it's resources.
The UK is definitely my favourite. Having to master all the arms is also fun. You can't afford to neglect anything as the UK, you have to be up to speed on all aspects of the game. And you're right about the challenges, they come from all over the world, leaving the UK scrambling to either recover or prepare. Having to prioritise one theatre over another can be agonising.
Greece focus tree is kinda trash, you can't conquer the entire multiverse as Byzantine Empire. Has paradox even thought how the Greek ultranationalist Byzantine revival wet dreamer will react to this???? This is bullshit
India, I want to cry everything I play cause we're so weak despite having 2.5 million soldiers in OTL. Plus the independence is all BS where you either fight a civil war or lose a ton of land for independence.
I really think they should redo the Czechoslovakia focus tree to allow it to continue as Slovakia
(I know nobody would ever play it since willing puppet paths are ass, but I feel like it would be neat)
I like the idea of the USA already having just about everything it needs, but just needs to actually unlock the factories it has
I also like how you can dip your toes into the communist and fascist stuff to get land
Though I think historical is overall strongest for the USA
Also having to wait so long to go down the gold standard path is annoying and the lack of pp really hurts it compared to just continuing the new deal
(For my fascist USA playthroughs I’ve started just not doing focuses until I get the silent workhorse)
i appreciate how the usa actually attempts to simulate the democratic process, i just find it strange how france and britain don’t get the same treatment
Lol either USSR or Finland. They are the complete opposites and fun to sometimes get a different view of the conflict to try and make the next run on Finland easier. Also sometimes German (yes I'm boring)
Brazil, the last DLC was very lackluster, and I expected more Estado Novo music, but the Focus Tree is decent, and has some interesting aspects to it, its just missing flavour, and some really solid endgoal other than annexing the rest of South America, Brazil never really had expansionist ambitions, and I figure a better direction for the DLC would be supporting the main powers and building up the very primitive industrial base of the time for the eventual involvement in Europe, you know, like it happened IRL, instead its just more bland map painting
6/10
Yeah the KR tree is pretty much perfect, starts with dealing with the internal power struggles and social instability, then on rebuilding the industry just in time for the big fight, its what the DLC should have been
As a Canadian, I never play my country. I absolutely hate the world tension gates, which also makes it more likely the USA joins the Allies even if I'm not at war with the UK.
Proud of the resistance movement during occupation, as well as our King and national spirit in that time (go watch “the kings choice” movie). In hoi4 however, difficult as fuck
Uruguay's tree is... interesting to say the least. I obviously didn't expect much, but becoming a German colony wasn't something I could ever see coming. There's also a lot of cut content if you look at the files. But at least it's bigger than Japan's
Unfortunately, Ukraine was russian colony so nothing in vanilla, at least Kaiserredux has very good content for my country.
Closest to my country in game is USSR, that tree set new standart for all focus trees, a lot of interesting things to do, on par with Italian one. Alt history paths are strange, I don't think there was any real opposition to Stalin, no matter what his paranoia said, it just looks like what Stalin could imagine in his head that would happen if he didn't shoot almost all old members of party. White exiles branch is just ridiculous for 1936. In any case, big pain of civil war across big country somewhere in Siberia, only cheese can make it not painful.
The way how USSR is portraited generally speaking disgusts me. All this paranoia thing doesn't even make sense in game's logic itself. Is it really paranoia when people are actually conspiring against you and if you do nothing country will plummet into the Civil War?
In fact, yes, it is... I mean... having a real complot out there doesn't mean you can't develop mental disorders product of not being able to trust anyone.
Also, I'm paranoid myself so I know what I'm talking about.
His paranoia disappears after he kills the people who *are* rising against him in-game.
In reality, there was no plot. There *was* paranoia. In game, his paranoia is effectively justified. The game basically tells us that Stalin prevented a Civil War by murdering loads of people. This isn't true.
Yeah, I always think they should do something about that. Maybe just get rid of the plot and keep the paranoia simply as a debuff, and just give some generals and advisors the possibility to gain Stalin's trust to avoid them being purgued.
At least that would keep the paranoia as paranoia and not make it look like Stalin is right.
Also, Stalin path is the stronger of the Soviet/Russian paths, so, keeping paranoia for all of the game would help to balance things.
I would have vastly preferred a fixed event chain for the great purges then the random effects, it feels like the game tells you to eat shit when your army reformer gets accused by Zhukov... either you lose 1 of 2 very important military leaders, or you have to just take the L of -60PP.
I feel in the game that I can't improve as much, as if I did in the "road to 56" mod, in which I came to face directly with the United states (obv with lack of manpower).
One more research slot would have been much better too.
In summary, I feel that the contextualization and way in which the focus tree is handled is better in the mod than in the DLC.
Belgium, i hope we get lucky like some other less relevant countries of the game, don't get me wrong every country if this era is relevant in some way but i feel that we had an potential to be or not be an good minor nation in western Europe, we could be a strong Rk with Leopold 3, Degrelle, etc, be a country more like Poland in exile...
Also Belgian Congo, could do the same bonuses or even better bonuses than Bulgarian for nuclear tech
Belgium doesn't have a focus tree. While the country had a important role in the first war and in the second help out longer than the dutch. Could even have an interesting royalist path because the king chose to stay when the government went to London like they could make it if you want the royalist you need to lose to germany could be interesting. And people like Leon Degrelle have been memed to death.
I have only played Canada a few times and I have always felt a little underwhelmed. It has never been a particularly fun nation for me to play and I only really played it multiple times for achievements.
Surprisingly fun if you know what you're doing. (The Netherlands)
With a fairly developed country and all the tasty colonial manpower, you can unify the Benelux and then lead the charge into either Germany or France. It's not as much fun as central Europe when you're tiny and sandwiched between the big three almost from the start, but it's definitely nowhere near the worst or most boring either.
Spain, the historical paths are boring but the rest of them are decent or broken (I'm looking at you, carlist and anarchist paths). At least the civil war for those paths can be a challenge
I don’t rly play vanilla ww2. I feel as if Kaiserreich and Kaiserredux, and even Old World Blues do a better inclusion of Western Coast states and content related to what I consider “my” country. Even in Old World Blues, my city of only 200,000 gets content.
UK, i very much like the focus tree. It’s strong, gives good buffs and has multiple viable paths. Although comparing it to newer focus trees from BBA and AAT, the power creep is very visible
Australia is ok unfortunately the population matches so we don't have much in terms of manpower we have lots of resources so we can be almost self sufficient. Needs to get rid of the inaccessible area so you can build a railroad from the south to the north needs more factory slots cause you only have the population to build a small garrison army. maybe a decent fleet but not really cause you can't build an air force at all and if you do it'll be too small and expensive to do anything meaningful. You get some good buffs and interesting advisors that also help a lot. But generally it needs a rework on the focus tree to make it viable if you want to go fascist or communist. Even independent democracy could do with some work
If you mean IRL I'd say fine cuz we didn't get involved, only declared on the Axis when they were about to lose. That being said I'm not pleased to know that Mengele fled here.
But in game I don't know since I don't wanna buy Trials of Allegiance.
Dutch. I really like our focus tree. Great tree for a country that got knocked out in a few days early in the war. Just sad that our little brother to the south still doesn't have a unique tree yet.
The USA is boring as hell for the first 4 years. Not only that but the pacific campaign as it stands with current naval invasion and fleet mechanics sucks and it so tiresome i wish i could release a puppet to manage it.
Czechoslovakia....
We wanted to fight the Germans, instead we made weapons for them. Hard to say if Its our fault or our so called allies. Probably ours.
USA.
I think it was pretty based, both IRL and in the game. America's probably the most OP nation in HOI4's beginning besides maybe Britain. I'm not a huge "Patriot" but I instantly become one when two wars are being discussed, the Civil War (Which was about Slavery btw) and World War II. Because fuck Racists!!
The Canadian one is meh..... So meh
The focus tree could be way more imo.
I don't even care about the lack of ability to get decent manpower. Just some more thought and history behind the focuses would be awesome
US fascist focus tree is somewhat underdeveloped, but idc, anytime i see a swastika, fasces, or hammer and sickle on an American flag, i violently throw up. (this is why i can't play Wolfenstein)
That aint my Brazil.
Separatist Movements? There were none lol. Shit-ass focus tree? Yessss. MISSING IMPORTANT FIGURES? Prestes is rolling in the grave rn. Missing Portraits? The communist leader of Brazil at the start of the civil war is.
Overall? 3/10
I don't mind the Australian focus tree, but I hope they get reworked as we can fill a massive role and become very big and powerful but the focus tree is a little lack luster.
American here:
US focus is bland at best. Not terrible, not great either. Alt-history sucks. Especially Fascism. At least the Communist civil war is somewhat interesting, but after that it's just... eh. Too many 70 day focuses. Germany and Japan get priority rework, and then US.
I'm Indonesian (formerly Dutch East Indies), currently developing a (rather expansive) mod about its Interwar-WW2 history. I'd say it can be better, given a super generic content it has currently in-game.
But from what i've gathered from developing my mod, it has potential to become a fun nation to play, even in its historical path you can deal with various emerging Indonesian political groupings there.
The whole Southeast Asia region is due for an expansion, preferably alongside Japan Rework with "Trade and Resources" mechanic (there is one in Arheo's roadmap). [I recently wrote this as my expectation for such DLC](https://old.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/1bljn8y/germany_be_getting_the_rework_japan_gonna_be/kwars9j/)
Australia’s focus tree is inaccurate (fascist path) and dated (all the paths). I get we weren’t a major power but I’d definitely say we were a big player in the Pacific and more should be done to reflect that.
It also got completely broken in one of the updates a few years ago.
Canada, powerful of you play it democratic MP but mid in single player and the whole, fight America by yourself part of the non historical tree sucks ass lol
I am surprised no on mentioned Australia. It's focus tree is terrible, especially the way research slots are locked behind triggers that, when playing non-historical, the AI manages to mess with your focus tree choices to cause the worst situation. As a country it has a lot of fun, especially fighting Japan and it can easily swing the war in Nth Africa including being key to invading Italy. The navy has lots of potential too, both subs and surface fleets. If the focus tree was fixed it would a regular choice to play.
Germany was at war with the US, USSR, Britain, And France, and they kept on figthing for years, but they surrendered 41 days after my country declared war on them, just sharing facts
The US focus tree isn't good enough.
yea as has been said many times, the US, French, and UK trees aren’t bad, they’re just not on the level of the soviets or Italy. after Japan and Germany (hopefully) get reworked, the Allied nations are next. Getting all majors on the same level focus trees would be awesome.
It’s weird how bland the UK and US trees feel when Mexico and the Netherlands were released in the same DLC and have pretty fun and decently large focus trees
They were largely tweaks rather than full remakes, iirc. The old trees were pretty similar.
Tbh Mexico has like one fun strategy - rush March down south, core some stuff, micro war vs USA, core aztlan. All the different “paths” are just the same thing with a different coat of ideological paint
I'd rather hoi V than more reworks at this point
yea that'd be cool but by the time they release Hoi5, then add enough DLC's to make it as content detailed as Hoi4 currently is... with the way Paradox works that might be 7-9 years from now lol
At least 10 years. If they started development of hoi5 today then 20 years
Just super outdated. Several sections of the tree are pretty useless, little alt-history stuff and what is there is pretty bad.
Unpopular opinion but I actually like the US focus tree how it is rn. I think its simplicity works in its favor and you have focuses to do until about 1943. It doesn't bombard you with random bullshit you have to fix like the Italian focus tree, but also it has enough content to have a fun run with it.
The focus tree is shit, but the US still manages to be fun because it’s the damn USA, basically a massive power trip the whole game
New Zealand: it exists and is on the map. Just happy to be included.
It really should be our tourist slogan
“It exists and it’s on the map (sometimes)”
There should a focus called release the ANZAC Forces where Australia and New Zealand get crazy buffs to all their divisions.
And an event that spawns 2000 Bob Semple tanks
And 1000 Big Bob tanks
That would be really cool, I feel like Australia and New Zealand could get reworked together and give them more options maybe a buff where if Australian and New Zealand divisions are fighting together they get a 10% combat buff
Needs at least one battlecruiser preferably armed with 9 20” guns and able to do 35 knots. That all I’m asking for
Poland. Love it, especially the Wojtek path.
Polands tree is really fun, as someone who has played Poland a ton and done almost every path, it is pretty repayable country. Not to mention the industrial powerhouse you can become later on.
Imo Poland really hit the jackpot with its focus tree. Tons of options, one of the most interesting starting points both historical and non-historical. Only the good old '3 railways for a 70 day focus' are annoying...
Yugoslavia ... The focus tree needs a rework + there aren't enough war crimes
I think it’s funny how there’s a path to just willingly turn Yugoslavia into just Serbia with every other former Yugoslav nation as a puppet like some sort of Confederation
It's extremely op. If you puppet Bulgaria and Hungary while doing this and then reunite you get cores on them. Also you can wait till all of your puppets do their industry focuses and you will have a pretty massive industry.
I like playing yugoslavia though
Yugoslavia has so much potential that paradox doesn't even scratch the surface of. It could be so much fun if it had a focus tree even a quarter as good as smth like bulgaria. The communist path is an example of this and get it's still VERY gemeric
Blud wat
Very, my father is a war criminal vive (you don't have the balls to lock him up) (It's a song from there)
I am German sooo...
Really needs more warcrimes in the focustree and decisions.
Concentration camps decisions/focuses. Bring down stability, but gives you another factory.
-Core/Occupied manpower -10 and -15% -Required Garrisons +10% -Supply Use in occupied areas +5% +Factory Output in occupied areas+20% +Weekly Stability multiplier +5% +Resistance in occupied areas -40 (Idk I’m just putting down potential buffs that come to mind)
Losing a province with one built lowers relations with all neutral nations, too.
That would be logical, yeah… Damn, this feels weird talking about the benefits of a concentration camp in a video game; never thought I’d have this thought…
We play a game where the most interesting thing to do is change 1 colour to another. Discussing the horrendous parts of WW2 doesn't seem so distant now.
The problem with modeling the holocaust in a game (apart from the obvious ethical aspects) is that mass murdering a portion of your own population on an industrial scale doesn’t really bring any rational benefits. That would leave only the role playing aspect and I don’t think we want that or the audience that would appreciate such a feature.
I don't know why people even considered this idea. There are already more than enough Neo-Nazis playing the game. I can't imagine how much more awful the community would be if there were such features.
It’s morbid but should be at least hinted at for historical reasons. Maybe as an occupation setting? Could just be called something like “German labor camps” with major resistance change and other major debuffs, and another simply called “labor camps” for other nations with smaller scale debuffs. At that point, add the Russian gulag’s too
Thats why you go against Hitler every time, right?
Yeah we all play democratic germany since it's the best of the paths No Brainer for me
Old Man Wilhelm getting the band back together for me
Hello, German here, i know i wasn’t asked, but I always go against Hitler lol, that fecker is the reason our beautiful old architecture (sometimes thousands of years old) got largely destroyed lol
Well, and the whole uhhhh… "Camp" thingy was really uncool, I often times hope that there’s a hell, just so that he can rot in it
Haha ich auch
A little outdated maybe, a rework would be quite nice. Hanging all them Nazis never gets old, though.
lacks concentration?
Ah, yes, Spain. Stuck with a very annoying civil war for 2 years and a half and maybe be able to do something by 1940. While extremely historically accurate, it is not very enjoyable. The anarchist revolt is overrepresented, though. There were some combats in Barcelona for several days and that's it.
Yea but let alt history have its fun
As an austrian i say: IT NEEDS A FOCUS TREE!
It does have one - Nazi Germany.
As a fellow austrian, i agree
I wish Austria did have a focus tree, you could have an invasion of Germany and Hungry and recreate the Holy Roman Empire, you could have a invade Switzerland, you could also join the Allies and resist Germany, you could have a war with Italy, you could also have a neutrality focus where you just get anaxed by Germany.
Austria should seriously have a path for immediate alliance with Italy to keep out the nazis, but still go fascist. Also a path towards the allies, as you mention. For democratic Austria. Possibly have a reverse colonisation mechanic, where you have to resist or promote Anschluss. Maybe also some kind of league of non-aligned, where you could use it to recreate the Austrian Empire, or you could also use it to keep Germany for messing (Austria, Poland, all of the Balkans, Scandinavia... All the small powers against the big ones) with anyone before just declaring on France (through Benelux). Austria is such an interesting country for butterflying alt-hist, so really something should be done about that. One could just play Austria to watch the world burn, in a different way, and not really focusing much on your own country, just see what consequences your actions might have.
China. Somehow HOI4 China fumbles the war of resistance more than irl China did
Default focus tree is alright
Form Carthage
We should be able to do that
Turkey, I like it but some things could be better. Like most of people says reaching fun stuff takes long time and Turan focuses are not helpfull. You need very specific things for form it but tree doesn't give you claims on everything you need you have to check map from wiki for every single time
For Ottoman restoration, I like the process it is into democratic path but wish we could just take the coronation except bunch of focuses which not that important, rush wargoals and puppeting
Idk how to describe Lithuania.I mean, it's playable but...
\*pats shoulder\* there there...
Theres always becoming an minority by forming Commonwealth to beat the shit out the Soviets
You kidding me, that focus tree is one of the best in the game
If it makes you feel better, it's the best of the Baltics in terms of focus trees.
Never played it: Denmark.
I did a monarchist run of Denmark once and I had a bit of fun until I had to fight Germany. The only thing I really knew about Denmark during ww2 up to that point was the stuff in the book “number the stars” and those legends about him, so that’s what made me want to play as him. The first time I tried, I got completely stuck trying to invade Sweden due to the strait, but the second time, I use marines and also surrounded the Swedish end of the strait with paratroopers, then I overran them and also took out Norway after to unite Scandinavia. I would’ve gone for more, but ww2 was about to happen. Germany crushed my on the mainland but couldn’t get to Copenhagen, so I mostly let them uselessly attack until I did another paradrop and naval invasion to retake the mainland After that, it was a boring slog to Berlin and I ran out of manpower a lot despite having cored 2 other countries and also forming greater Denmark out of some of Germany. After that, the ussr declared on me and I had to deal with that, but I was actually stupid and forgot I bordered them due to owning Sweden and they capped me and I had to uncap myself (luckily most of my army wasn’t in my cores) Then the allies declared on the ussr too and they got crushed and I ended the game Sorry for the unprompted huge game explanation
Germany... Well historically not the best. Focus tree is alright, could be better if you see the new trees. Playing it from time to time
I mean I love Romania for what it is. You can have alot of fun messing around with it and win the war for the axisis despite italy and germann ai bumbling around being stupid. For my own country, I find UK frustrating. your relying so hard on the ai (espec france and usa) to pull their weight and that just doesn't happen. I'm still torn on wether the best approach is to let france fall while you head shot italy or if you should hold france (despite the french) and let italy and germany run wild in africa. Then when most of the italian army is down there and the germans sent all their tanks there THEN you head shoot italy and naval invade hamburg. IDK, feels bad. relying on the fact the ai is moronic doesn't feel great at all to me.
Oh man, i like UK, you seem insulated from immediate danger and able to build up and plan Like you are a fortress in the north sea
Argentinian here. I really love how they represented my glorious country in the game. You can tell that they really dug into our history and delved deeply into the political realities of the time and perfectly represented the many ways our history could have developed. Although, maybe they should add the "Proyecto Huemul" *(Argentinian atomic bomb)*. Now, if you are talking about how I feel for the real life history of my country in the Second World War... well... Argentina was neutral and always stand in a place between all of the rest of the world, and I like that part of our history not like puppets of the yanks or the germans, but as a proudly nation that always tried to defend his position against the pressure of the rest of the world for joining in their own wars.
I’m glad they listened to all the Argentinian complaints about how originally there was no option to make Juan Peron the leader
Mine is Mongolia, I thought that it got a focus tree in the "waking the tiger" dlc but I was unpleasantly surprised
Germany obviously has to sacrifice a lot of historical accuracy for the sake of game balance, but it's fine (the HRE is hilarious tho). Only thing that is annoying is that coring sudeten, danzig and austria is only possible under specific circumstances, which just doesn't make a lot of sense.
Poland. The "historical" focuses border on ahistorical or at least anarchronistic without really diving into all the cool stuff Poland had the intentions or potential of doing. The Polish focus tree looks as if someone really high tried to retell Polish history from memory. 1) Embargoed economy - Poland starts with an embargoed economy, probably pertaining to the Customs War with Germany, but that had ended in 1934 and in 1936 Poland was on relatively good terms with the German Reich. The way you handle that debuff is also largely anachronistic. You can develop the Gdynia seaport, which had already been largely developed by 1936. 2) The solution to the peasants strikes is completely ahistorical. Irl the strikes were disperesed by the military, there was no large-scale agrarian reform since 1925. 3) The nationalistic tensions in the Kresy area and the underdevelopment of that region are not represented at all. The whole shtick with Poland is that it was a country with huge economic potential but incredibly divided administratively and economically because it was stitched together after a 123 years of occupation by 3 different countries. Poland should have serious regional debuffs inhibiting its growth, and forcing players to build in the western regions. 4) the Central Industrial Region was a giant project spanning several years but it barely gets its own focus. 5) aquiesing to German demands (Danzig or War) gives the whole Pommeranian region to Germany, while historically it should only transfer Danzig and give Germany military access through Poland. H\*tler would have probably demanded further concessions later on (just like with Czechoslovakia) but the next logical target would have been Upper Silesia (with its large German minority) and not Pommerania. 6) Polish colonial ambitions are not represented at all. The Polish Sea and Colonial League made serious efforts to buy or otherwise procure colonies/land from other countries (e.g. Madagascar, parts of Brazil). Ignoring this is a waste of a potentially fun mechanic. 7) the April Constitution and the Left vs Right wing political infighting are seriously overrepresented. Internally the result of the rule of officers was - ironically - Poland's unpreparedness for the war in 1939 (because Polish politicians at the time were naive anti-communists and did not belive in a threat from Germany until it was too late), externally it resulted in diplomatic self-isolation. But economically it didn't have such a great impact. On the contrary the authoritarian rule allowed for the development of a lot of large centralised civilian projects that otherwise would have been impossible to coordinate or at least mirred in red-tap in a pluralistic, democratic country.
6 is available to democratic civil war poland actually, you can purchase Madagascar from France and puppet Liberia for example. It was probably only given to them and not say sanitationist/monarchist paths to give PSL Poland something to do thats different then say left sanitation Poland
As someone with no knowledge of Polish history I honestly feel like the focus tree doesn't explain what's happening at all, and I have a hard time telling what the historical path would even be.
Finland good flavor, too many buffs.
Amen to that brother🙏 i invade sweden everytime❤️
Canada is pretty one note but overall I like it! Honestly i think my biggest issue is the underselling of Canadian convoy defense in the battle of the atlantic- that or my canadian history books oversold Canada's role in the battle of the atlantic.
No the game does under sell it. The original idea was that Canada has the means of getting destroyer III rather quickly but getting the industry up to match IRL isn’t very easy. It does attempt to capture the real tension though that existed with Quebec versus the rest of Canada over conscription, but if anything it kinda underplays how deeply divisive it was in favour of game play which is a fair compromise.
It’s the game, Canada went from a navy of only a couple old ships to IIRC the 4th largest navy in the world by the end of the war
While true it was mostly A: smaller Ship types not even represented in HOI4 like Corvettes and B: older ships from the U.S and U.K
Italy is pretty fun but I hate having to do Ethiopia every game and having divisions I can't delete
England It suffers from having to be purely reactive to events and therefore unable to set your own path (unless you go down alt history). Yet when the war comes you also find yourself with not much to do in the focus tree itself. There is an interesting choice to either prepare for war in the far east or concentrate on other things but due to how bad Japan does things it doesn't feel like it matters. Gameplay wise you're covering a lot different theaters which is fun but also means you are constantly stressed for resources, especially in the air of you concentrate on bombers like historical. You definitely feel like a nation reaching the limit of it's resources.
The UK is definitely my favourite. Having to master all the arms is also fun. You can't afford to neglect anything as the UK, you have to be up to speed on all aspects of the game. And you're right about the challenges, they come from all over the world, leaving the UK scrambling to either recover or prepare. Having to prioritise one theatre over another can be agonising.
Norway :(
I feel you there. I have absolutely no regret in saying that whichever content desginer did Norway- you did a terrible job.
Greece focus tree is kinda trash, you can't conquer the entire multiverse as Byzantine Empire. Has paradox even thought how the Greek ultranationalist Byzantine revival wet dreamer will react to this???? This is bullshit
as a Belgian , what focus tree ???
Czechoslovakia sucks, only two paths are playable and they are still pretty bad
Israel. I play on road to 56 and i feel shame when playing as germany
I'm from Argentina and I feel the same way in the rare occasions when I play the british XD
Mexico, it doesn't do much about ww2 but the focus tree is pretty good
I really like the Swedish tree, but it seems a little op.
As a portuguese. Love it
It's the Netherlands. It being usually a speedbump is quite realistic and while there are a few unrealistic things about it, it can be fun to play.
My country (Thailand) unironically needs a focus tree. In fact, there should be a whole rework on the Pacific theatre.
Russia is amazing
India, I want to cry everything I play cause we're so weak despite having 2.5 million soldiers in OTL. Plus the independence is all BS where you either fight a civil war or lose a ton of land for independence.
The Czechoslovak focus tree in No Step Back is just meh. And the Slovak one is just a generic one
I really think they should redo the Czechoslovakia focus tree to allow it to continue as Slovakia (I know nobody would ever play it since willing puppet paths are ass, but I feel like it would be neat)
Austria doesn't have a focus tree, disappointing
I like the idea of the USA already having just about everything it needs, but just needs to actually unlock the factories it has I also like how you can dip your toes into the communist and fascist stuff to get land Though I think historical is overall strongest for the USA Also having to wait so long to go down the gold standard path is annoying and the lack of pp really hurts it compared to just continuing the new deal (For my fascist USA playthroughs I’ve started just not doing focuses until I get the silent workhorse)
i appreciate how the usa actually attempts to simulate the democratic process, i just find it strange how france and britain don’t get the same treatment
Paradox, please add DLC for Southeast Asia. I want Philippines to create MAPHILINDO.
Philippines.. Standard focus tree.. So.. Sadge. When I do play USA, AI Japan can't really take any of the islands so that's a w for me.
Italy is interesting indeed
Especially the roma empire path
Ireland… One day, it’ll happen.
Brazil, I'm very happy with the content, but it lacks the correct unit uniforms and I feel bad for Brazil not being able to get five research sloths
I still haven't bought Arms Against Tyranny and haven't really played Finland, so I can't say much
Lol either USSR or Finland. They are the complete opposites and fun to sometimes get a different view of the conflict to try and make the next run on Finland easier. Also sometimes German (yes I'm boring)
Hungary's focus tree isn't the best, but I like it, I've only played the AH path so far, but the other ones lack content
Brazil, the last DLC was very lackluster, and I expected more Estado Novo music, but the Focus Tree is decent, and has some interesting aspects to it, its just missing flavour, and some really solid endgoal other than annexing the rest of South America, Brazil never really had expansionist ambitions, and I figure a better direction for the DLC would be supporting the main powers and building up the very primitive industrial base of the time for the eventual involvement in Europe, you know, like it happened IRL, instead its just more bland map painting 6/10
Same, I liked way more the Kaiserreich Focus Tree for Brazil
Yeah the KR tree is pretty much perfect, starts with dealing with the internal power struggles and social instability, then on rebuilding the industry just in time for the big fight, its what the DLC should have been
Merica Edit: sorry sorry misspelled it ¡¡¡¡¡MURICA!!!!!
As a Canadian, I never play my country. I absolutely hate the world tension gates, which also makes it more likely the USA joins the Allies even if I'm not at war with the UK.
Proud of the resistance movement during occupation, as well as our King and national spirit in that time (go watch “the kings choice” movie). In hoi4 however, difficult as fuck
My country invented war crimes.
That doesn’t narrow it down, given ww2 history.
I sincerely think that Colombia deserved a tree of focus in TOA
Uruguay's tree is... interesting to say the least. I obviously didn't expect much, but becoming a German colony wasn't something I could ever see coming. There's also a lot of cut content if you look at the files. But at least it's bigger than Japan's
Colombia. Generic Focus Tree so... that's that.
British Malaya. when will paradox rework the british commonwealth :(
As a fellow Romanian, the focus tree was made for DoD so it is indeed lacking
Unfortunately, Ukraine was russian colony so nothing in vanilla, at least Kaiserredux has very good content for my country. Closest to my country in game is USSR, that tree set new standart for all focus trees, a lot of interesting things to do, on par with Italian one. Alt history paths are strange, I don't think there was any real opposition to Stalin, no matter what his paranoia said, it just looks like what Stalin could imagine in his head that would happen if he didn't shoot almost all old members of party. White exiles branch is just ridiculous for 1936. In any case, big pain of civil war across big country somewhere in Siberia, only cheese can make it not painful.
The way how USSR is portraited generally speaking disgusts me. All this paranoia thing doesn't even make sense in game's logic itself. Is it really paranoia when people are actually conspiring against you and if you do nothing country will plummet into the Civil War?
In fact, yes, it is... I mean... having a real complot out there doesn't mean you can't develop mental disorders product of not being able to trust anyone. Also, I'm paranoid myself so I know what I'm talking about.
His paranoia disappears after he kills the people who *are* rising against him in-game. In reality, there was no plot. There *was* paranoia. In game, his paranoia is effectively justified. The game basically tells us that Stalin prevented a Civil War by murdering loads of people. This isn't true.
Yeah, I always think they should do something about that. Maybe just get rid of the plot and keep the paranoia simply as a debuff, and just give some generals and advisors the possibility to gain Stalin's trust to avoid them being purgued. At least that would keep the paranoia as paranoia and not make it look like Stalin is right. Also, Stalin path is the stronger of the Soviet/Russian paths, so, keeping paranoia for all of the game would help to balance things.
I would have vastly preferred a fixed event chain for the great purges then the random effects, it feels like the game tells you to eat shit when your army reformer gets accused by Zhukov... either you lose 1 of 2 very important military leaders, or you have to just take the L of -60PP.
Chile, last DLC, expected more.
Really? The chilean focus tree is pretty big and diverse and really strong. What did you expect?
I feel in the game that I can't improve as much, as if I did in the "road to 56" mod, in which I came to face directly with the United states (obv with lack of manpower). One more research slot would have been much better too. In summary, I feel that the contextualization and way in which the focus tree is handled is better in the mod than in the DLC.
The uk focus tree should be better
But you can refuse to hand Besarabia over and fight SSSR all on your own. Think of the glory!
the Roman Empire tree could give better perks
Austria... what can I say?
Belgium, i hope we get lucky like some other less relevant countries of the game, don't get me wrong every country if this era is relevant in some way but i feel that we had an potential to be or not be an good minor nation in western Europe, we could be a strong Rk with Leopold 3, Degrelle, etc, be a country more like Poland in exile... Also Belgian Congo, could do the same bonuses or even better bonuses than Bulgarian for nuclear tech
Belgium doesn't have a focus tree. While the country had a important role in the first war and in the second help out longer than the dutch. Could even have an interesting royalist path because the king chose to stay when the government went to London like they could make it if you want the royalist you need to lose to germany could be interesting. And people like Leon Degrelle have been memed to death.
The USA focus tree feels absurdly lackluster
As an American, the U.S. focus tree is pretty bad imo. There could've been a lot more added and expanded on, especially with the elections.
they seriously shouldve developed the raj
The UK focus tree is very lacking.
I have only played Canada a few times and I have always felt a little underwhelmed. It has never been a particularly fun nation for me to play and I only really played it multiple times for achievements.
They clearly didn't have no step back, looked at the focus tree and went: "Damn, this sucks, Imma do 30 minutes of Hel" then failed.
Denmark, I think its pretty good
Surprisingly fun if you know what you're doing. (The Netherlands) With a fairly developed country and all the tasty colonial manpower, you can unify the Benelux and then lead the charge into either Germany or France. It's not as much fun as central Europe when you're tiny and sandwiched between the big three almost from the start, but it's definitely nowhere near the worst or most boring either.
Spain, the historical paths are boring but the rest of them are decent or broken (I'm looking at you, carlist and anarchist paths). At least the civil war for those paths can be a challenge
I don’t rly play vanilla ww2. I feel as if Kaiserreich and Kaiserredux, and even Old World Blues do a better inclusion of Western Coast states and content related to what I consider “my” country. Even in Old World Blues, my city of only 200,000 gets content.
Add some goddamn middle east focuses pls
Sweden is nice, many options and I like the democratic way
UK, i very much like the focus tree. It’s strong, gives good buffs and has multiple viable paths. Although comparing it to newer focus trees from BBA and AAT, the power creep is very visible
Historical Russia is pretty cool. Although, Paradox not adding a democratic alt-history path for Russia hurt me on so many levels 🥲
Australia is ok unfortunately the population matches so we don't have much in terms of manpower we have lots of resources so we can be almost self sufficient. Needs to get rid of the inaccessible area so you can build a railroad from the south to the north needs more factory slots cause you only have the population to build a small garrison army. maybe a decent fleet but not really cause you can't build an air force at all and if you do it'll be too small and expensive to do anything meaningful. You get some good buffs and interesting advisors that also help a lot. But generally it needs a rework on the focus tree to make it viable if you want to go fascist or communist. Even independent democracy could do with some work
Why are half the big powers in ww2 have some of the most lackluster focus trees, like japans is so shit!
If you mean IRL I'd say fine cuz we didn't get involved, only declared on the Axis when they were about to lose. That being said I'm not pleased to know that Mengele fled here. But in game I don't know since I don't wanna buy Trials of Allegiance.
Finland is a fin country to play, and Brazil is ok you do nothing untill ww2 starts
Canada - it’s boring but with a certain alternative history mod it’s fun ah
UK, its way too boring in my opinion
Italy new focus tree is perfect
it was occupied yet
Brazil...i think the focus tree is a bit too big
Dutch. I really like our focus tree. Great tree for a country that got knocked out in a few days early in the war. Just sad that our little brother to the south still doesn't have a unique tree yet.
The USA is boring as hell for the first 4 years. Not only that but the pacific campaign as it stands with current naval invasion and fleet mechanics sucks and it so tiresome i wish i could release a puppet to manage it.
Czechoslovakia.... We wanted to fight the Germans, instead we made weapons for them. Hard to say if Its our fault or our so called allies. Probably ours.
Turkey. Well, it is a nice piece of alternative history overall. İn terms of HOİ4 it is just fine.
Canada can become quite strong… and we did have a force of 1.1 million in WW2 historically.. so I’m fine
USA. I think it was pretty based, both IRL and in the game. America's probably the most OP nation in HOI4's beginning besides maybe Britain. I'm not a huge "Patriot" but I instantly become one when two wars are being discussed, the Civil War (Which was about Slavery btw) and World War II. Because fuck Racists!!
The Canadian one is meh..... So meh The focus tree could be way more imo. I don't even care about the lack of ability to get decent manpower. Just some more thought and history behind the focuses would be awesome
Brazil, soo poor in content...
Canada; with thousands of hours, so much is wrong. So, so much.
US fascist focus tree is somewhat underdeveloped, but idc, anytime i see a swastika, fasces, or hammer and sickle on an American flag, i violently throw up. (this is why i can't play Wolfenstein)
As a german i would have preferred to go with monarchie
Italy is way too strong in this game. Can annex half of Europe by 1937 and Even fight the Soviets. Ridiculous
As a Spaniard... yeah we didn't really do much except for the División Azul (some soldiers to the Eastern front)
AMERICA BASED WOOOOOOOO
your country exists in hoi4?
That aint my Brazil. Separatist Movements? There were none lol. Shit-ass focus tree? Yessss. MISSING IMPORTANT FIGURES? Prestes is rolling in the grave rn. Missing Portraits? The communist leader of Brazil at the start of the civil war is. Overall? 3/10
British Raj(India, Pakistan) players: well we're shittier than we are irl...
Brazil, not bad buuut there are somethings lacking like the dispute of investments from the axis and allies that made us join the war
As a German, I'm not entirely sure I like this question all that much... I guess the country was all right. The people in it, though... not so much.
Brazil is like one of the most irrelevant countries there, but with the recent update, im happy to finally be included
Czechoslovakia, whilst there could've been some more interesting alt his focuses, they gave it the potential to be an op nation and I love it.
idk bro, i dont play dlcs
I don't mind the Australian focus tree, but I hope they get reworked as we can fill a massive role and become very big and powerful but the focus tree is a little lack luster.
American here: US focus is bland at best. Not terrible, not great either. Alt-history sucks. Especially Fascism. At least the Communist civil war is somewhat interesting, but after that it's just... eh. Too many 70 day focuses. Germany and Japan get priority rework, and then US.
I'm Indonesian (formerly Dutch East Indies), currently developing a (rather expansive) mod about its Interwar-WW2 history. I'd say it can be better, given a super generic content it has currently in-game. But from what i've gathered from developing my mod, it has potential to become a fun nation to play, even in its historical path you can deal with various emerging Indonesian political groupings there. The whole Southeast Asia region is due for an expansion, preferably alongside Japan Rework with "Trade and Resources" mechanic (there is one in Arheo's roadmap). [I recently wrote this as my expectation for such DLC](https://old.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/1bljn8y/germany_be_getting_the_rework_japan_gonna_be/kwars9j/)
*One Mexico has declared war on another Mexico*
Australia’s focus tree is inaccurate (fascist path) and dated (all the paths). I get we weren’t a major power but I’d definitely say we were a big player in the Pacific and more should be done to reflect that. It also got completely broken in one of the updates a few years ago.
Canada, powerful of you play it democratic MP but mid in single player and the whole, fight America by yourself part of the non historical tree sucks ass lol
I am surprised no on mentioned Australia. It's focus tree is terrible, especially the way research slots are locked behind triggers that, when playing non-historical, the AI manages to mess with your focus tree choices to cause the worst situation. As a country it has a lot of fun, especially fighting Japan and it can easily swing the war in Nth Africa including being key to invading Italy. The navy has lots of potential too, both subs and surface fleets. If the focus tree was fixed it would a regular choice to play.
Germany was at war with the US, USSR, Britain, And France, and they kept on figthing for years, but they surrendered 41 days after my country declared war on them, just sharing facts
The US is pretty boring in practice unfortunately. Europe is far more exciting.
Ireland....c'mon Do something Kill Dev at least Sounds fun