Last week was the anniversary of the start of Spanish Civil War.
Some teachers expressed their concerns about the increasing number of young people who doesn’t seem to understand the horrors of war.
They said: "They play a video game, Hearts of Iron IV, about the Civil War, in which the conflict is trivialized. The tragedy of 1936 is reduced to moving pieces on a map, where the notion of repression, human suffering, and loss of freedoms is completely lost. For many young people, the war is reduced to a matter of military strategy.".
As I consider them an example of woke moral panic I’ll just point to the last sentence: “for many young people…” as we all know youngsters only close their tiktok to play HOI4. Popularity increases!
Original Spanish article

Three years ago u/lillelur wrote a script for combat width optimization, and u/Emzatin fixed some errors in it. I found that post recently, ran the numbers against the current version, and went a bit overboard: I extracted the terrain and unit files myself and built a full data model on top of them.

First thing worth saying: the width numbers in that old post still hold. Terrain combat widths (50/60/70/80 + 25/30/35/40 per attack direction) and the overstack/stacking constants are unchanged in 1.19. Nothing to recalculate there.

What I added is the part the original script couldn't do — splitting things by terrain and by unit type. A few things that came out:

• Optimal width depends heavily on terrain. Mountain/marsh: 25 fits perfectly (divides 50/75/100/125). Forest/jungle: 15 or 30. Plains/hills/desert: 14 or 18. Urban: 20.

• Unit type barely changes the general-map optimum, because the map is dominated by open terrain — but it changes a lot if your unit is stuck in one terrain type.

• Heavy armor is worse than people think in closed terrain: -0.6 attack in jungle, -0.5 in urban. Mountaineers get +0.35 in mountains, marines +0.3 in marsh.

• Logistics is the part nobody looks at. Marsh and jungle wreck your supply trucks (4.0 and 3.0 truck attrition). Urban is the only terrain that actually helps supply flow.

Every number is traceable to a game file and line. I'm not trying to hand anyone a meta — the whole point is the opposite: here are the numbers, build whatever you want with them.

Full thing with all the tables and the methodology is here: [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3766564371&insideModal=0]

Happy to be told I got something wrong — if a discussion turns up something I missed, I'd genuinely like to add more views to it.

I'm a Brazilian, so I apologize for any incorrect or strange translation

On the recent post by the user u/Doug2825, running their script showed that the concentrated industry is about 11.8% better (in terms of industrial capacity). However, I realised that this doesn't take into account the main purpose of Dispersed Industry, the bonuses on factory bombing vulnerability and production efficiency retention (which they'd actually flagged as untested themselves). Without taking these into account, it'd be weird to say Dispersed would be better, as otherwise there's a clear bonus on factory output.

I added those bonuses, as well as:

1. alternating between production lines (30% of the production changes each year),
2. factory bombing (starting after 4 years and by 10%),
3. extra construction (cost of 10800 each 180 days).

After these, we see that the Dispersed Industry is slightly better by 3.4%.

This of course shouldn't concern anybody, as this is a game and it's the best to simply do whatever you want. And the results are almost identical. We're here only to have a nice time!

Feel free to suggest here (or commit on GitHub) any of your suggestions. I could definitely have done some mistakes here. And as a disclaimer, I used some Claude help for reorganising the code.

Original Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/s/0te4eLoFh6
Source Code (My GitHub Repository): https://github.com/boraboyacioglu-itu/hoi4_industry/

Hi, I’m playing Germany and I can’t get my naval invasions to start.

As shown in the screenshots:

• The naval invasion orders are created and the divisions are assigned.
• The invasion arrows are visible.
• I clicked the green execute-plan button.
• The game is unpaused and time is running.
• I have naval supremacy in the required sea zones, as shown in the second screenshot.
• I have around 2K convoys available, so convoy shortage should not be the problem.
• The plan tooltip shows an estimated plan value of 80%, but the divisions still do not move.

Is there a requirement or warning I am overlooking?

Any help would be appreciated because I cannot see what is blocking the orders.

R5: I finished the Sino-Japanese war under ~1 year, and right afterwards the US declared war on me. The only interaction we’ve had, event wise, was when I declined to apologize for the sinking of the USS Panay.

I’m worried that the US will join the allies, causing the Second World War to happen in Asia instead of Europe. I understand naval combat, but the combination of the Allied navy, if they should enter the Pacific will obliterate my second-rate navy.

Should I just play aggressive and conquer South-East Asia? I already have submarines on convoy raiding around the Philippine Islands

Edit: u/wndpzr has improved the simulation to take into account bombing and production switching here: https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/1v3lc1j/for_the_discussion_on_concentrated_vs_dispersed/

Without factoring in equipment switching concentrated always outperforms dispersed with a normal rate of acquiring factories. The conventional wisdom for years has been that getting new factories online faster from dispersed mattered more than the slightly higher output concentrated gives. (I created my script to disprove u/Most_Application_950's recent posts about how concentrated was better). However as shown by my plots the idea that new factories make dispersed better is disproven and total ic from concentrated is always higher than dispersed. THIS POST IS SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE ARGUMENT THAT NEW FACTORIES MAKE DISPERSED BETTER.

Unless you are conquering a lot of factories the rate at which you build factories is to low to make dispersed better.

Factors not included that would benefit dispersed:

• Switching production (This test was specifically about the argument that new factories benefit from dispersed)
• Sudden influxes of factories (such as through conquest)
• Getting more production of newer equipment
• Dispersed gives you newer equipment sooner, which may end up being more ic efficient in battle

Factors not included that would benefit concentrated

• MIO and country specific production efficiency cap modifiers
  • Production efficiency cap multiplies with the output bonus of concentrated
  • A higher cap means higher growth which makes base production efficiency less important

Conclusion:

The rate of new factories needed to make dispersed better than concentrated is to high to matter for most of the game, unless you are getting a lot from something like conquest. The impact of switching equipment is outside the scope of this test. It may shift in in favor of dispersed since the gap is only 5% until slot capped but I haven't tested it.

Assumptions:

• No mils or civs from focuses or occupation
• Parital mob the entire game ( I reran the numbers later with realistic eco laws but that didn't change anything
• Free trade the entire game
• 7 starting mils
• 11 starting civs
• Industry techs research is finished at the start of their year (so you are researching with a slight ahead of time penalty)
  • Except concentrated/dispersed 1/2 and the 1936 techs, those are researched roughly as soon as possible if you start with none
• You get building slot capped at the end of 1941
• You stop adding new civs to your construction queue and switch to mils at the end of 1937
• No equipment swapping
• No resource cost

Edit: Reddit broke my code blocks/code when I edited the post to mention u/wndpzr 's follow up post. I am leaving my mangled code here for record keeping purposes. But anyone who wants to do their own should base their work of of his repo: https://github.com/boraboyacioglu-itu/hoi4_industry/

import yaml from enum import Enum
initial_military_factories = 7 initial_civillian_factories = 11ic_per_factory_day = 4.5 construction_per_factory = 4
infastructure_bonus = 1.8military_factory_cost = 7200 civillian_factory_cost = 10800
construction_switch = 730
slot_cap_date = 2190class ModifierState: production_efficiency_base = 0 production_efficiency_cap = 0 factory_output = 0 construction_speed = 0 millitary_factory_speed = 0 civillian_factory_speed = 0 consumer_goods = 0
class Factory: # Current production efficiency production_efficiency = 0 # Total days of 100% production efficiency, 100% factory output factory_days = 0
class BuildingType(Enum): NONE = 0 CIV = 1 MIL = 2
class ConstructionSite(): building = BuildingType.NONE progress = 0
def print_factory_states(day, factory_list): total_factory_days = 0 average_production_efficiency = 0 for factory in factory_list: total_factory_days += factory.factory_days average_production_efficiency += factory.production_efficiency
def simulate(schedule_to_use): print(f"Simulating using {schedule_to_use}") # Test duration in days test_duration = 3285 civillian_factories = initial_civillian_factories
def main(): simulate("dispersed_schedule") simulate("concentrated_schedule")if name == "main": main()import yaml from enum import Enum
initial_military_factories = 7 initial_civillian_factories = 11ic_per_factory_day = 4.5 construction_per_factory = 4
infastructure_bonus = 1.8military_factory_cost = 7200 civillian_factory_cost = 10800
construction_switch = 730
slot_cap_date = 2190class ModifierState: production_efficiency_base = 0 production_efficiency_cap = 0 factory_output = 0 construction_speed = 0 millitary_factory_speed = 0 civillian_factory_speed = 0 consumer_goods = 0
class Factory: # Current production efficiency production_efficiency = 0 # Total days of 100% production efficiency, 100% factory output factory_days = 0
class BuildingType(Enum): NONE = 0 CIV = 1 MIL = 2
class ConstructionSite(): building = BuildingType.NONE progress = 0
def print_factory_states(day, factory_list): total_factory_days = 0 average_production_efficiency = 0 for factory in factory_list: total_factory_days += factory.factory_days average_production_efficiency += factory.production_efficiency
def simulate(schedule_to_use): print(f"Simulating using {schedule_to_use}") # Test duration in days test_duration = 3285 civillian_factories = initial_civillian_factories
def main(): simulate("dispersed_schedule") simulate("concentrated_schedule")if name == "main": main()

base_stats: production_efficiency_base: 0.10 production_efficiency_cap: 0.50 factory_output: 1.00 construction_speed: 1.00civillian_economy: millitary_factory_speed: -0.3 civillian_factory_speed: -0.3 consumer_goods: 0.35early_economy: millitary_factory_speed: -0.1 civillian_factory_speed: -0.1 consumer_goods: 0.3partial_economy: millitary_factory_speed: 0.1 civillian_factory_speed: 0 consumer_goods: 0.25war_economy: millitary_factory_speed: 0.2 civillian_factory_speed: 0 consumer_goods: 0.2total_economy: millitary_factory_speed: 0.3 civillian_factory_speed: 0 consumer_goods: 0.1production_1: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_2: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_3: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_4: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_5_s: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1 production_efficiency_growth: 0.1concentrated_1: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_2: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_3: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_4: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_5: factory_output: 0.15dispersed_1: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_2: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_3: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_4: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_5: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1free_trade: factory_output: 0.15 construction_speed: 0.15construction_1: construction_speed: 0.1construction_2: construction_speed: 0.1construction_3: construction_speed: 0.1construction_4: construction_speed: 0.1construction_5: construction_speed: 0.1base_stats: production_efficiency_base: 0.10 production_efficiency_cap: 0.50 factory_output: 1.00 construction_speed: 1.00civillian_economy: millitary_factory_speed: -0.3 civillian_factory_speed: -0.3 consumer_goods: 0.35early_economy: millitary_factory_speed: -0.1 civillian_factory_speed: -0.1 consumer_goods: 0.3partial_economy: millitary_factory_speed: 0.1 civillian_factory_speed: 0 consumer_goods: 0.25war_economy: millitary_factory_speed: 0.2 civillian_factory_speed: 0 consumer_goods: 0.2total_economy: millitary_factory_speed: 0.3 civillian_factory_speed: 0 consumer_goods: 0.1production_1: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_2: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_3: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_4: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1production_5_s: production_efficiency_cap: 0.1 production_efficiency_growth: 0.1concentrated_1: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_2: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_3: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_4: factory_output: 0.15concentrated_5: factory_output: 0.15dispersed_1: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_2: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_3: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_4: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1dispersed_5: production_efficiency_base: 0.05 factory_output: 0.1free_trade: factory_output: 0.15 construction_speed: 0.15construction_1: construction_speed: 0.1construction_2: construction_speed: 0.1construction_3: construction_speed: 0.1construction_4: construction_speed: 0.1construction_5: construction_speed: 0.1

# Technology Schedule Configuration
dispersed_schedule: 0: - free_trade - base_stats - civillian_economy 180: - construction_1 - production_1 365: - dispersed_1 - construction_2 - production_2 - remove: civillian_economy - add: partial_economy 445: - dispersed_2 1095: - dispersed_3 - construction_3 - production_3 1460: - remove: partial_economy - add: total_economy 1825: - dispersed_4 - construction_4 - production_4 2555: - dispersed_5 - construction_5 - production_5_s
concentrated_schedule: 0: - free_trade - base_stats - partial_economy 180: - construction_1 - production_1 365: - concentrated_1 - construction_2 - production_2 445: - concentrated_2 1095: - concentrated_3 - construction_3 - production_3 1825: - concentrated_4 - construction_4 - production_4 2555: - concentrated_5 - construction_5 - production_5_s

qwen3.6:27b handled the yaml parsing, the rest of the code was done by hand.

Hi, I'm wondering what people do as Soviet Union to stop Germany in a game where France fell with minimum losses? German meta these days revolves around 36W inf and rushing guns plus regimental guns (mountaineers if exploits involved) and support companies for modifiers. This results in divs that regularly pump 500-600 soft atk under green air in SU. I havent seen a game where soviet holds this succesfully for more than a year. Any tips or is Soviet just cooked in current meta? My best attempts yield 7 milion troops but the divisions are significantly weaker due to debuffs, pushing only 200-250 soft and its not enough to stop the axis from reinforce meming entire front

So, my friend and I played for fun... he as China (Manchukuo) and India (me), and these are the borders in the 1944...

gotta be my biggest L so far (i accidentally put all of my generals on "frontline" proximity and they just got captured one by one lmao)

Playing as the US
Came down through Denmark and took Berlin but now the front has kind of stabilised and I expect the war will drag out for another couple of years at least (playing against 3x buffed Germany and Italy )
Long before I took his capital big H grabbed Moscow and renamed Berlin to Germania like an idiot. Can I change it back myself by a decision or something? Not the most important thing in the world but I’d like to flip him the proverbial bird by flipping his capital back to its normal name.

Cheers

1936 Invasion hitting different

I am kinda overwhelmed

I am thinking of disabling all DLCs and playing the vanilla game for a bit until I get a good understanding of the basics and then from there start adding DLCs and learning their mechanics.

Is that a good idea?

I started playing a month ago. Holy hell what a learning curve this game has. A lot of naval guides and strats to take England seem to be outdated due to patching and updates. I followed Bittersteels guide and it’s treated me well except for the navy. England wipes me out no matter what I do….which is why I love this game. Running into the same problems Napoleon and Hitler had.

What is your Strat to cross and invade England? Can I run an all Submarine Strat to get enough naval dominance? Should I avoid the channel all together?

Also, I built improved fighters and have 25 factories cranking these bad boys out. But when I go to add a new air wing it just shows out of date fighters in the queue. Are these fighters just slowly replacing my old fighters in existing air wings, and if so can I stop that from happening? I’m trying to get more fighter wings to spread them out more evenly.

I need your help. I really need your help to beat Japan as China.

I can hold the Yellow River and defend that position without too many problems, but I can't do anything once I start my counteroffensive. Every single time I get stuck as soon as I push out of Shanxi.

I don't know if the problem is my division templates, my supply situation or something else entirely.

Please help.

I wouldn't even know that there *were* hidden focuses if I didn't see people talk about them every now and then.

For a game that's all about planning and preparation, keeping focuses hidden until certain criteria are met just seems counter-intuitive

So I just defeated the allies like a month and a half after attacking Poland (cheesed sea lion by doing it immediately) and once the peace conference hit all the focuses before auturky achieved bypassed. Did I miss out on all the bonuses that these focuses give now or does bypassing them also give the benefit? Should I have tried to get them done before I defeated the allies?

I feel like I generally understand focus trees, pp, econ. I can generally build an army of a decent size. I do all this prep to defend and feel really good about it and then watch my lines crumble hard and fast with no seeming way to recover because wants even one unit gets pushed it seems all the other units start moving around and losing entrenchment bonuses and also never actually move to where they are needed. They seem to bunch up on the flanks where there is less supply amd they get easily pinched off and encircled.

Have been playing as mostly France and Soviets after coming back after last playing heavily in like 2021.

One major thing I dont understand is how to get my troops to do the thing I want them to do. Like I can line them up behind a river using fallback line. But once there I dont want them to mindlessly try and get back to that line even if they get pushed. Nor do I want them to just stay put never adapting. But if I switch order to front line then all hell breaks loose.

I remember something about field marshalls which might help but don't fully understand how that works.

Also, after resisting doing anything with division designer for a long time in my most recent game I created a 9 inf 1 arty infantry template with aa, eng, and arty support which i read somewhere was good cor the Soviets but they got melted loke butter same as always. I think I may have built too many units? Because I went quickly from a surplus of like 30k inf equipment to minus 30k pretty damn quick once the war started. Or maybe I dont fully understand what the info in the production screen means.

Back in 2021 I used to be able to win or at least hold my own most games. Maybe supply is a problem too? Some areas never get it no matter how many rails I build. Most of my play time was just build up infrastructure to keep supply moving.

Help someone who understands the basics and was pretty competent 5 years ago take the next few steps to be competent again.