Government in Hearts of Iron IV represents the internal politics of your country, while applying passive bonuses to it. The key components to your government are political power, ideas, and ideology.
Political Power
Think of political power as the currency your government uses. By default, you will generate two per day, but this changes based on a few factors. Game difficulty is the biggest one, as it can decrease production by 15 percent or increase it by up to 50 percent on the easiest difficulty. Some leaders in game impact political power production, but the only one in power at the beginning of the game is Adolf Hitler, who provides a 25 percent increase.
Political power is used for a variety of actions, such as national focuses, decisions, and perhaps most importantly, ideas.
Ideas
While fans of Paradox games may associate Ideas with Europa Universalis 4, they operate entirely differently in Hearts of Iron IV. Ideas are different advisors, design companies, or the high command of your military that you can hire. Laws also fall under ideas, but we talked about those in depth here.
Advisors
Political advisors are a people you can hire with political power to enhance a variety of gameplay mechanics, like political power, ideology drift, and factory construction. While most advisors are randomly generated, there are some historical advisors available through national focus trees, like Rudolf Hess or Vyacheslav Molotov.
Design Companies
Levying out the duty of designing military vehicles to companies will improve weapon quality, as well as make future research easier. Dozens of different design companies are available in-game, with many being based on historical companies. For example, the United States has access to Chrysler and Boeing as design companies.
Design companies each give unique bonuses to different aspects of your military equipment. They are all relatively equal, so it is mostly up to playstyle. If you prefer to use light tanks, it would probably be best to choose a design company that boosts light tanks instead of heavy tanks. Companies can be boost different types of aircraft, naval ships, infantry equipment, armored vehicles, and artillery.
High Command
Unlike traditional commanders, the high command of your military functions as an advisor. They offer general bonuses to large swaths of your military, and they cost 150 political power each. More options for high command can be usually be unlocked through a national focus tree.
There are 49 different possible options for high command, and you can choose up to three. Options include things like submarine expert to boost submarine attack, or a cavalry expert to boost all cavalry stats.
Ideology
Ideology is how your government is chosen in Hearts of Iron IV. There are four ideologies in the game, Communism, Democracy, Fascism, and Non-Aligned. Each ideology has different bonuses, listed below. In addition to their bonuses, your ideology impacts other countries opinion of you.
Communism and Fascism
Communist and Fascist countries have traits designed around being aggressive and bending other countries to their will. It is far easier to expand with these ideologies, as they are able to justify war earlier and cause less world tension when they start a war. In addition, they can occupy neutral countries territory temporarily.
Examples of Communist and Fascist countries in-game include the Soviet Union and Germany, two of the major powers in the game. If you have some aggressive goals and desire rapid expansion, choosing a country with one of these two ideologies would be ideal.
Democracy
Opposing the aggressiveness of the ideologies above, countries that are a Democracy are balanced around slowing down the aggressors in the world, without direct war. These countries, such as France and the United States, can guarantee the independence of countries and host their governments in exile if they are invaded.
The weakness of the Democracy ideology comes from it being held back by World Tension limits. Some of the most impactful actions in the game, like guaranteeing a country, can only happen after World Tension passes a certain point. Once World Tension reaches 100 percent, they can declare war, which is usually when World War 2 begins.
Non-Aligned
Non-Aligned represents any other government type, including Anarchism, Centrism, and Oligarchic governments. No major power starts as Non-Aligned, so this ideology is not played with frequently. It is certainly the weakest of the four ideologies, as it lacks the offensive powers of the Fascist and Communist countries while also being held back by World Tension limits.
Summary
Understanding how your government functions in Hearts of Iron IV will help you reach your maximum potential in-game. While it isn’t as crucial as putting well-made divisions in the field, or executing a brilliant battle plan, a well-managed government can undoubtedly make the game easier.
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Lucky Boop
Strategy game enthusiast, especially Paradox titles and the Civilization series. Whenever he's not writing he spends his time watching sports, enjoying coffee, or studying history.
