The newest expansion, No Step Back, for Paradox Interactive’s critically acclaimed strategy game, Hearts of Iron IV, has just released. To celebrate, here’s five great community mods for the latest entry in the series!
Hearts of Ice and Fire
By obiwanbul
Hearts of Iron is known for its meticulous political and military manoeuvring, with an intense focus on outplaying opponents through long-term strategic planning. Whilst a little unusual, it’s no surprise that the Game of Thrones franchise’s political grandstanding fits handily into Hearts of Iron. Playing across multiple contents from the series’ world, the ultimate fate of the Seven Kingdoms and beyond will be down to your careful political machination - and well-placed military confrontation.
Hearts of Iron: 1984
By beeseverywhere
George Orwell’s 1984 is an essential bit of fiction that warns against the nature of overly-oppressive governments and surveillance. Its wider world has often been theorised and contested, given most of what we see is only the immediate nation surrounding the book’s protagonist. This mod, however, hopes to transport players into the depressing and militarily complex world of the book, filling in gaps and providing a substantially different set of political and military problems to solve.
Hearts of Iron IV: Economic Crisis
By SuxrobGM
Whilst Hearts of Iron has traditionally been centred around the Second World War, this mod advances the timeline considerably and places the premise in the early 2000s, describing the political fallout of an economic crisis in the modern day. What comes next is a series of new systems for money management, trade, and diplomacy, with new cash mechanics that implicate wider issues from the financial collapse. The mod is a very different - and potentially, very close-to-home - take on the Hearts of Iron formula.
The New Order - Last Days of Europe
By AFellowStalker
One of the biggest and most popular “what ifs” in historical fiction is regarding the ultimate victor of World War II. This mod takes it in an extreme direction - the Axis powers winning quickly and easily but collapsing just as quickly, losing control of the peace. It’s up to the player to either find a way to hold onto the power, or take it back from underneath the oppressing Nazi overlords.
Hearts of Iron IV: The Great War
By WolferosTeam
It goes without saying World War II is one of the most influential conflicts in human history, but the first World War - The Great War, as it was named at the time - has also had a significant impact on the development of global society. It’s only natural, then, that using the formula Hearts of Iron IV establishes for mid-1900s political and military control to tell the story of the first catastrophic conflict of the century produces a remarkably well-made mod. Players will have to contend with issues across the world in establishing an ultimate victor, whether following the path of history or not.
Not An Inch
Hearts of Iron is a grand strategy franchise where players are required to plan great strategic moves on a global scale to claim victory for their faction. The games are traditionally set in the World War II period, placing players into the conflict in control of one of the major (or minor) nations that took part.
Iron Clad
Hearts of Iron IV is the most recent entry in the franchise and has enjoyed a steady stream of support since release, featuring both paid and free DLC and seasonal updates. The most recent, No Step Back, gives the various nations in Eastern Europe and particularly the USSR much more detailed mechanics, with many new units and systems to manage if players choose Russia as their starting faction.
War of the World
With a healthy modding community and active support still in place, Hearts of Iron IV is sure to enjoy plenty more content in the future. As it stands, No Step Back is already very positively received on Steam.
Just an FYI that No Step Back has broken the vast majority of these and other mods. This happens with every major update. Your options are either wait until the mods are updated (assuming they're still active) or rollback the game to a previous version. As of right now your best bet is to rollback to 1.10.5 "Collie" or 1.10.8 "Collie Anniversary." Steam users can rollback by right clicking the game in the library, selecting "Properties" and selecting the desired version under the "Betas" menu.