Reading the post in full, the actual invasion only took 14 in-game days. They detail the exact methodology they use in the thread’s first comment, even including some video evidence to prove what they’d done. Related: The best WW2 games and war games on PC Hearts of Iron 4’s main campaign starts on January 1, 1936. Historically Japan didn’t invade China until 1937, and it was unable to fully take over the country before being forced to surrender in 1945.ĬrossMountain was playing as China, and managed to exploit the naval invasion mechanics to fully conquer and annex Japan by December 30, 1936. Japan annexed as China in December 1936 from hoi4Īs you can see from the above thread on the r/hoi4 subreddit, user CrossMountain’s version of World War 2 took a very drastic turn. Now it’s gotten to the point where one military genius managed to invade and conquer Japan by… *checks notes* December 1936? Naval invasions are somewhat key to the whole ‘theme’ of the second world war, and while the AI can sometimes struggle to use the mechanic correctly, players generally don’t have issues. Hearts of Iron 4 is no stranger to these kinds of tactics, and a new one has surfaced that involves naval invasions. In Crusader Kings, marrying the right person at the right time can inherit you half the world in a single stroke, whereas in EU4 there are plenty of ways to inflate your holdings by grokking one mechanic or another. Many of the historical strategy games Paradox creates are prone to exploitation in one form or another. There are caveats and exceptions of course – Crusader Kings 3 is a serious contender for that crown given that it’s already sold over a million copies. But, generally speaking, more people play Hearts of Iron 4 more consistently than all of the other games.įree from the railroading of past iterations, HOI4 provides a sandbox where the second world war can take on many forms, and you as the player have many options available to you in terms of how you leave your mark in this historic conflict. It inspires a community that’s passionate about tactics, the WW2 setting, Hearts of Iron 4 mods, and finding exploits. You may not know this, but Hearts of Iron 4 is (probably) the most popular of Paradox’s grand strategy games.

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