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* BalkanizeMe: China is represented as an alliance of several warlord factions (the Nationalists and Communists are just two groups among many) essentially functioning as an EnemyMine to defend against Japan.
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* BalkanizeMe: China is represented as an alliance of several warlord factions (the Nationalists and Communists are just two groups among many) essentially functioning as an EnemyMine to defend against Japan.
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country. As well you know, the level of industry each country has bears little relation to the country's actual level of industrialisation - this is done for balance issues. China therefore has 'far' more modern industry than it did in real life, which is absolutely ''devastating'' when a unified China makes use of this with its seemingly-bottomless manpower pool. The nationalists Nationalists or Communists always have a huge glut of leaders to head up such massive game-breaking armies, and in [=HoI2=]) both actually have reasonable tech-teams to boot (when they have enough industry to make use of them, as they inevitably do when they unify the country).
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country. As well you know, the level of industry each country has bears little relation to the country's actual level of industrialisation - this is done for balance issues. China therefore has 'far' more modern industry than it did in real life, which is absolutely ''devastating'' when a unified China makes use of this with its seemingly-bottomless manpower pool. The nationalists Nationalists or Communists always have a huge glut of leaders to head up such massive game-breaking armies, and in [=HoI2=]) [=HoI2=] both actually have reasonable tech-teams to boot (when they have enough industry to make use of them, as they inevitably do when they unify the country).
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* CoolPlane: as if air superiority in the series wasn't deadly enough, you have the option of researching air-to-air missiles, jet engines, radars, radar-guided bombs and missiles, and '''Rocket Interceptors'''. Focusing on such advanced techs can give you quite the edge in air battles, especially if you also upgrade your AA defenses to fire surface-to-air missiles.
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* CoolPlane: as if air superiority in the series wasn't deadly enough, you have the option of researching air-to-air missiles, jet engines, radars, radar-guided bombs and missiles, and '''Rocket Interceptors'''. Yes, in World War II. Focusing on such advanced techs can give you quite the edge in air battles, especially if you also upgrade your AA defenses to fire surface-to-air missiles.
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** At least in the third installment of the game, nuclear bombs also pretty much level the entire infrastructure of the target province (air bases, roads, factories, rocket test sites, and so on) with the ground.
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Cool planes
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* CoolPlane: as if air superiority in the series wasn't deadly enough, you have the option of researching air-to-air missiles, jet engines, radars, radar-guided bombs and missiles, and '''Rocket Interceptors'''. Focusing on such advanced techs can give you quite the edge in air battles, especially if you also upgrade your AA defenses to fire surface-to-air missiles.
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* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Industrial capacity. It's allocated purely for balance issues and is in no way an accurate depiction of world industrial capacity at the time. If it was, the USA would have one-third-to-''half'', the Soviet union with about 1/7, Germany and Britain and France about 1/10 each, Japan and Italy with less than 1/20, and all of China with less than 1/20. Hearts of Iron 2's logistics system is also extremely unrealitsic in that it is completely perfect - there are no supply problems, ''ever'', apart from the underproduction thereof. Hearts of Iron 3 makes some improvement on this, but logistics problems are still severely under-estimated.
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* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Industrial capacity. It's allocated purely for balance issues and is in no way an accurate depiction of world industrial capacity at the time. If it was, the USA would have one-third-to-''half'', the Soviet union with about maybe 1/7, Germany and Britain and France about with less than 1/10 each, and Japan and Italy with less than 1/20, and all of China with less than 1/20. Hearts of Iron 2's logistics system is also extremely unrealitsic in that it is completely perfect - there are no supply problems, ''ever'', apart from the underproduction thereof. Hearts of Iron 3 makes some improvement on this, but logistics problems are still severely under-estimated.
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* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Industrial capacity. It's allocated purely for balance issues and is in no way an accurate depiction of world industrial capacity at the time. If it was, the USA would have one-third-to-''half'', the Soviet union with about 1/7, Germany and Britain and France about 1/10 each, Japan and Italy with less than 1/20, and all of China with less than 1/50. Hearts of Iron 2's logistics system is also extremely unrealitsic in that it is completely perfect - there are no supply problems, ''ever'', apart from the underproduction thereof. Hearts of Iron 3 makes some improvement on this, but logistics problems are still severely under-estimated.
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* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Industrial capacity. It's allocated purely for balance issues and is in no way an accurate depiction of world industrial capacity at the time. If it was, the USA would have one-third-to-''half'', the Soviet union with about 1/7, Germany and Britain and France about 1/10 each, Japan and Italy with less than 1/20, and all of China with less than 1/50.1/20. Hearts of Iron 2's logistics system is also extremely unrealitsic in that it is completely perfect - there are no supply problems, ''ever'', apart from the underproduction thereof. Hearts of Iron 3 makes some improvement on this, but logistics problems are still severely under-estimated.
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country with one of top industries and absurdly high manpower. This is especially present if it's unified under Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound of military leaders attatched (and tech-teams in [=HoI2=]).
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country. As well you know, the level of industry each country with one has bears little relation to the country's actual level of top industries and absurdly high manpower. This industrialisation - this is especially present if it's done for balance issues. China therefore has 'far' more modern industry than it did in real life, which is absolutely ''devastating'' when a unified under China makes use of this with its seemingly-bottomless manpower pool. The nationalists Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound always have a huge glut of military leaders attatched (and to head up such massive game-breaking armies, and in [=HoI2=]) both actually have reasonable tech-teams in [=HoI2=]).to boot (when they have enough industry to make use of them, as they inevitably do when they unify the country).
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* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Industrial capacity. It's allocated purely for balance issues and is in no way an accurate depiction of world industrial capacity at the time. If it was, the USA would have one-third-to-''half'', the Soviet union with about 1/7, Germany and Britain and France about 1/10 each, Japan and Italy with less than 1/20, and all of China with less than 1/50. Hearts of Iron 2's logistics system is also extremely unrealitsic in that it is completely perfect - there are no supply problems, ''ever'', apart from the underproduction thereof. Hearts of Iron 3 makes some improvement on this, but logistics problems are still severely under-estimated.
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* WarIsHell: much of the game has a bleak, depressing atmosphere, and while many strategy games represent huge armies as single units with nondescript "hit points", HOI3 represents units as divisions of tens of thousands of men, who tend to die in huge numbers when armies clash. Fighting a war and receiving reports of tens of thousands of soldiers losing their lives in '''a single battle''' can be very sobering.
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* WarIsHell: much of the game has a bleak, depressing atmosphere, and while many strategy games represent huge armies as single units with nondescript "hit points", HOI3 Hearts of Iron represents units as divisions of tens of thousands of men, troops, who tend to die in huge large numbers when armies clash. Fighting a war and receiving reports of tens of thousands of soldiers losing their lives in '''a single battle''' can be very sobering.
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* WarIsHell: much of the game has a bleak, depressing atmosphere, and while many strategy games represent huge armies as single units with nondescript "hit points", HOI3 represents units as divisions of tens of thousands of men, who tend to die in huge numbers when armies clash. Fighting a war and receiving reports of tens of thousands of soldiers losing their lives in '''a single battle''' can be very sobering.
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country with one of top industries and absurdly high manpower. This is especially present if it's unified under Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound of military leaders attatched (and tech-teams in HoI2).
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country with one of top industries and absurdly high manpower. This is especially present if it's unified under Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound of military leaders attatched (and tech-teams in HoI2).[=HoI2=]).
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* SelfImposedChallenge: How long can you last as Ethiopia (which starts the game being invaded by Italy) or Luxembourg (the smallest country represented)?
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* SelfImposedChallenge: How long can you last as Ethiopia (which starts the game being invaded by Italy) or Luxembourg (the smallest fully independent country represented)?represented, and right in the German line of fire if things go reasonably historically)?
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* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Heavily averted. You can play any nation on Earth, including more obscure nations in the war such as Nicaragua or Liberia at the time of the game's scenarios short of microstates like the Vatican or Monaco.
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* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Heavily averted. You can play any nation on Earth, including more obscure nations in the war such as Nicaragua that existed or Liberia plausibly could have existed at the time of the game's scenarios short of apart from microstates like the Vatican or Monaco.Monaco, including more obscure (with respect to WWII) nations such as Nicaragua or Liberia.
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** Received a download-only expansion titled ''Semper Fi''.
** Newest expansion titled ''For The Motherland'' was released recently online.
** Newest expansion titled ''For The Motherland'' was released recently online.
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** Received a Has received three download-only expansion titled expansions: ''Semper Fi''.
** Newest expansion titledFi'', ''[[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Dies Irae: Gotterdammerung]]'' (a Germany-focused mod for ''Semper Fi''), and ''For The the Motherland'' was released recently online.(which breaks compatibility with DI:G). At least one more is on the way.
** Newest expansion titled
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*** Justified - if the Nationalist Party's military had operated as it does in-game - i.e. in a semi-organised fashion devoid of huge amounts of infighting, insubordination, and chronic logistical issues - the CCP would've been crushed in the winter offensive of 1946. [[GeneralFailure As it was they ran out of supplies halfway because Chiang Kai-Shek was too busy trying to micromanage the campaign at the tactical level ''and'' play politics at the same time and basically forgot to ensure they had enough food and ammunition.]]
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*** Which is all extremly easy if you wisely break out when all Soviet forces are tied in fight with Germans. They rarely left any forces in resources-rich provinces of Siberia (Vladivostok maybe, but that's still far away). Capturing those provinces and annexing Mongolia will then launch domino effect, as USRR will lost flow of resources and place to rebase industry, so Nazi war machine will have much easier time fighting with them, which leads to even more desperate situation of Soviets and in the end it secures your positions and gains after German-Soviet airmstance.
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*** Which is all extremly easy if you wisely break out when all Soviet forces are tied in fight with Germans. They rarely left any forces in resources-rich provinces of Siberia (Vladivostok maybe, but that's still far away). Capturing those provinces and annexing Mongolia will then launch domino effect, as USRR will lost flow of resources and place to rebase industry, so Nazi war machine will have much easier time fighting with them, which leads to even more desperate situation of Soviets and in the end it secures your positions and gains after German-Soviet airmstance. Japan and China (no matter ''which'' China) are usually too busy with themselves to even care.
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*** Which is all extremly easy if you wisely break out when all Soviet forces are tied in fight with Germans. They rarely left any forces in resources-rich provinces of Siberia (Vladivostok maybe, but that's still far away). Capturing those provinces and annexing Mongolia will then launch domino effect, as USRR will lost flow of resources and place to rebase industry, so Nazi war machine will have much easier time fighting with them, which leads to even more desperate situation of Soviets and in the end it secures your positions and gains after German-Soviet airmstance.
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** Then there is the experience metter for units and leaders. Experience of units is transmitted directly into their combat effectivness, while leaders can gain new traits (HoI2) or grant bigger combat bonuses (HoI3)
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country with one of top industry and absurdly high manpower. This is especially present if it's unified under Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound of military leaders attatched (and tech-teams in HoI2).
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country with one of top industry industries and absurdly high manpower. This is especially present if it's unified under Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound of military leaders attatched (and tech-teams in HoI2).
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*** Politics away, unified China is simply a game-breaker country with one of top industry and absurdly high manpower. This is especially present if it's unified under Nationalists or Communists thanks to amound of military leaders attatched (and tech-teams in HoI2).
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* GameMod: Countless, including ones which take the game to an AlternateHistory, WorldWarOne, TheVietnamWar or TurnOfTheMillennium setting. A ColdWar mod is presently in development). Also there is a {{Fallout}} mod.
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* GameMod: Countless, including ones which take the game to an AlternateHistory, WorldWarOne, TheVietnamWar or TurnOfTheMillennium setting. A ColdWar mod is presently in development). Also there is a {{Fallout}} VideoGame/{{Fallout}} mod.
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** While the base game and HOI2 only involves the CSA, Texas and California seceding, one of the expansions, Iron Cross, [[BeyondTheImpossible takes it overboard]] and adds Alaska, Hawaii, an Indian nation, Deseret, Chicago, New England, the Intermountain Federation,the African-American nation of New Afrika and Cascadia
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** While the base game and HOI2 only involves the CSA, Texas and California seceding, one of the expansions, Iron Cross, [[BeyondTheImpossible [[UpToEleven takes it overboard]] to a new level]] and adds Alaska, Hawaii, an Indian nation, Deseret, Chicago, New England, the Intermountain Federation,the African-American nation of New Afrika and Cascadia
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* UrbanWarfare: Urban terrain types cause your units to suffer penalties in combat, with armor and artillery suffering the worst and infantry suffering the least, especially with engineers attached. Since urban provinces are also almost ''always'' victory point provinces or capitals, this also means plenty of hard-fought battles to take these cities.
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* ColdWar: Generally happens after WorldWarTwo to some degree, and frequently degenerates into WorldWarThree.
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* ColdWar: Generally happens after WorldWarTwo to some degree, and frequently degenerates into WorldWarThree. There are some mods in the official forums that add the Cold War as a whole up till the early 1960s into the mod.
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* DividedStatesOfAmerica: It's quite possible, if the RandomNumberGod is unkind to them in regards to random events or if they handle the aftermath of the Great Depression especially poorly, for regions of the United States to start organizing partisan militias and declaring themselves independent, eventually resulting in either the complete collapse of the country or a revolution.
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* DividedStatesOfAmerica: It's quite possible, if the RandomNumberGod is unkind to them in regards to random events or if they handle the aftermath of the Great Depression especially poorly, for regions of the United States to start organizing partisan militias and declaring themselves independent, eventually resulting in either the complete collapse of the country or a revolution.Communist revolution.
** While the base game and HOI2 only involves the CSA, Texas and California seceding, one of the expansions, Iron Cross, [[BeyondTheImpossible takes it overboard]] and adds Alaska, Hawaii, an Indian nation, Deseret, Chicago, New England, the Intermountain Federation,the African-American nation of New Afrika and Cascadia
** While the base game and HOI2 only involves the CSA, Texas and California seceding, one of the expansions, Iron Cross, [[BeyondTheImpossible takes it overboard]] and adds Alaska, Hawaii, an Indian nation, Deseret, Chicago, New England, the Intermountain Federation,the African-American nation of New Afrika and Cascadia
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*** YMMV in HOI2 Armageddon, the Communists starting at 1936 actually have far better unit models and ministers in comparison with the Nationalists, and if played right, could be VERY possible.
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** Consequentally, ''BanedInChina''.
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*** YMMV in HOI2 Armageddon, the Communists starting at 1936 actually have far better unit models and ministers in comparison with the Nationalists, and if played right, could be VERY possible.
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* EvilVersusEvil: Depending on the course of history, it's entirely possible for the game to end in a final showdown between an alliance of fascist dictatorships and their conquered puppet states and an alliance of equally repressive Stalinist dictatorships and their puppet states.
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* EvilVersusEvil: Depending on the course of history, it's entirely possible for the game to end in a final showdown between an alliance of fascist dictatorships and their conquered puppet states and an alliance of equally repressive Stalinist dictatorships and their puppet states. Or a final showdown between Germany, Italy and Japan when they're the only ones standing at the end.
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* CharacterPortrait: [[ShownTheirWork Every general and every minister]] for [[BeyondTheImpossible every country in the world]] has one. Some of these, like "General Camerashy" and "Admiral I'm on the Phone" have reached MemeticMutation levels.
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* CharacterPortrait: [[ShownTheirWork Every general and every minister]] minister for [[BeyondTheImpossible every country in the world]] has one. Some of these, like "General Camerashy" and "Admiral I'm on the Phone" have reached MemeticMutation levels.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7fa6ccffc869038811411bb109b945f6-Hearts_of_Iron_2_1571.jpg]]
''HeartsOfIron'' is a series of WorldWarTwo TurnBasedStrategy / RealTimeStrategy and management {{Simulation Game}}s by ParadoxInteractive (creators of the related ''EuropaUniversalis'', ''CrusaderKings'' and ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'' series). The games allow players to take the role of virtually any country on Earth as of the time at the beginning of the games various scenarios. The series has (like most of Paradox's games) been well received.
!!!The series currently consists of :
* ''Hearts of Iron'' (2002)
* ''Hearts of Iron II'' (2005)
** Has two expansions: ''Doomsday'' and ''Armageddon''
** As well as two official updated version/add-ons: ''Arsenal of Democracy'', and ''Iron Cross''
** Another update which includes WorldWarOne has been released: ''Darkest Hour''
* ''Hearts of Iron III'' (2009)
** Received a download-only expansion titled ''Semper Fi''.
** Newest expansion titled ''For The Motherland'' was released recently online.
* ''[[http://hoitcg.com/ Hearts of Iron: The Card Game]]'' (2011) which uses the series name and is based on WorldWarTwo but has little else in common
----
!!This video game series provides examples of:
* AdolfHitler: The first minister listed in the game's files. Rather appropriately classed as a "Powerhungry Demagogue."
** In the third installment he narrates the tutorial for you.
** The game also takes a ridiculous amount of time to tell you that his facial hair is inadequate and that he's not a very good painter.
*** And at the end of the tutorial, he [[GallowsHumor shoots himself in the head]].
* AlternateHistory: A major marketing point of the series, the game allows for things as big as the USA having a revolution in response to the Great Depression (you can choose whether to become Socialist, Fascist, Communist, or something else), to events as small as a historically-neutral country joining a certain side (Spain/Turkey/Argentina/Portugal joining the Axis, Brazil joining the Communists, the USA joining the Allies before Pearl Harbor, etc).
** The second expansion for [=HoI2=], Armageddon, features a full-on alternate history as one of it's campaigns. Nations include the United States of North America (US/Canada), the Confederates being independent and owning Mexico, a communist Britain that controls the low countries and Denmark, a communist Japanese republic, Russia still being a monarchy, Prussia still being an independent nation, and many others.
* AlternateHistoryWank: Any good player will cause this in the nation they play as: [[CrapsackWorld Germany conquering the Soviet Union and the world,]] [[SecondSinoJapaneseWar Japan conquering China,]] [[HoldTheLine France or even Poland holding off the Nazi tide,]] [[RedScare the red flag flying over all of Europe]], [[{{Eagleland}} the United States conquering the Soviet Union and Germany]], etc. Anything is possible.
** Also heavily avoided with the popular Alternate History mod [[VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg Kaiserreich]], which depicts a Germany that won WWI, but not immediately and totally, only after a long drawn out war. The standing German Empire has many internal problems by 1936. Other major factions that oppose them do exist: Communist France and Communist Britain, the loyalist remains of the Commonwealth (Canada, Australasia, Delhi), and the Japanese, Russians, and USA are wild cards.
* [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign As Long As It Looks Foreign]]: Comintern nations in the third installment will have their names written in [[TheBackwardsR faux-Cyrillic]] on the map. This led to a fair amount of complaining from Cyrillic reading fans. As usual, there's a GameMod to change this.
* AussiesWithArtillery
* AwesomeButImpractical: Super-heavy armor, strategic rockets, and super-battleships tend to be like this. However, when deployed properly, they can be QUITE effective.
* BalkanizeMe: China is represented as an alliance of several warlord factions (the Nationalists and Communists are just two groups among many) essentially functioning as an EnemyMine to defend against Japan.
* BannedInChina: Because it has Tibet as an independent country with its own flag, which the PRC has banned since 1959, and so is Manchukuo, as well as having China divided among the various warlords.
** Though Chinese modders made the most mods, and none of them have a selectable unified China.
* BonusBoss / EasterEgg: Open up the console and type "Alienattack [province number]". Watch the slaughter begin.
* BoringYetPractical: Infantry: versatile and doesn't require fuel or any other resource besides manpower, which, unfortunately, they eat [[TruthInTelevision like]] ''[[WeHaveReserves nothing]]'' [[RedShirtArmy else]].
* CanucksWithChinooks
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight, depending on how the game. With the most recent version of [=HoI=] III, France (as per ParadoxInteractive tradition) is somewhat of a monster.
** It's always averted in the sense that, even if they lose all their main territory, [[TruthInTelevision the French will continue to fight the Axis from exile until they are exterminated or the Axis is defeated]].
* CharacterPortrait: [[ShownTheirWork Every general and every minister]] for [[BeyondTheImpossible every country in the world]] has one. Some of these, like "General Camerashy" and "Admiral I'm on the Phone" have reached MemeticMutation levels.
* ChineseWithChopperSupport: Theoretically available, if one is a skilled Communist Chinese player.
* ColdWar: Generally happens after WorldWarTwo to some degree, and frequently degenerates into WorldWarThree.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: Pretty much a JustifiedTrope, especially for countries like Germany or the USSR. You can mandate new industrial development and allocate amounts of industrial capacity points to the areas of consumer goods, production, supplies, reinforcements and upgrades, with boosts or penalties to said industrial economy with certain minister types in your cabinet, whether you are at war and what choices you make in some events.
** Also justified in that during the war the Allied governments also controlled production to a larger extent than normal through rationing and other means.
** Additionally, if you try to do this when you're ''not'' at war, it can lead to high dissent.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: In the second game the AI can see everything; it can carry out amphibious assaults anywhere on the globe; and its organisation regenerates while moving. It can also materialise massive fleets that weren't anywhere on the map or in any port a moment ago when you checked with the nofog cheat to make sure there weren't any nasty surprises waiting for your amphibious assault somewhere.
** It kind of needs it though, since the out-of-the-box AI is so poor.
* CoolShip: "Advanced Super-Heavy Battleship" Need I say more?
** Yes, you do. "Nuclear Battleship".
* DelayingAction: With the correct doctrine, or luck, defenders can activate a "Delay" event, which slows down the attacking sides advance and penalises the attackers chances of causing casualties to the defenders, for a slight reduction to the defenders own chances.
* DiscOneNuke: In ''Hearts of Iron 3'', there is a stat which keeps track of what percentage of your army is made up of officers, and this directly affects how well your units perform (training more officers means your men are lead better in battle). Keeping it up to at least 100% is necessary to have your troops in good shape, but it can be boosted up to ''200%''. This means all of your military will be at '''double''' their normal organization. And since the highest the AI will raise their officer ratio is about to 120% or 130%, it's fairly easy to steamroll over everyone else just by taking advantage of this stat, at least in the early game. Multiplayer games tend to have a 'house rule' of only raising the officer ratio to 120% or so.
** The most recent patch reduced the maximum effectiveness of the officer ratio bonus to 140%. Any further than that and the player receives no bonus, beyond having additional officers in the case of attrition.
** More literally, it's perfectly possible to get nuclear weapons by 1940 if you spam nuclear research techs.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: It's quite possible, if the RandomNumberGod is unkind to them in regards to random events or if they handle the aftermath of the Great Depression especially poorly, for regions of the United States to start organizing partisan militias and declaring themselves independent, eventually resulting in either the complete collapse of the country or a revolution.
* DoubleStandard: Bizarrely, while the Rape of Nanking is an in-game event (though outside of the Japanese player's direct control) things such as TheGulag, terror bombing, or the Holocaust are officially banned.
** The USSR does have the choice of enacting the Great Purge though. The game gives a severe penalty if you ''don't'' do it.
* EasyLogistics: '''Averted'''. All units consume "supplies" that needs to be transported to the front. Getting cut off from supplies is a VERY BAD THING. Also, motorised units require fuel as well as supplies. Running out of fuel? Well, better build something other than tanks...
** ''Semper Fi'' now gives you a choice. You can use the 'realistic' supply system, which features convoys, air-drops, and is based on an engine that calculates the efficiency of your logistics system by how far from your nation's capital your troops are to simulate the logistics... or you can use 'arcade mode'. In arcade mode, you troops receive supplies no matter where they are, and as long as you don't run out of them you're fine.
* EvilVersusEvil: Depending on the course of history, it's entirely possible for the game to end in a final showdown between an alliance of fascist dictatorships and their conquered puppet states and an alliance of equally repressive Stalinist dictatorships and their puppet states.
* FinnsWithFearsomeForests: The Winter War is scripted to happen in III, although in the other games it might happen or it might not depending on the circumstances. Alas, the Finns almost always lose the war in a matter of days or weeks.
* GameMod: Countless, including ones which take the game to an AlternateHistory, WorldWarOne, TheVietnamWar or TurnOfTheMillennium setting. A ColdWar mod is presently in development). Also there is a {{Fallout}} mod.
** Some of these mods have/are being released as stand-along games, such as ''Arsenal of Democracy'', and ''Darkest Hour''.
* GaulsWithGrenades: Original, Vichy, and Free varieties.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Foreign IC", "foreign manpower" gained from appointing an Efficient Sociopath or Prince of Terror as your minister of security.
* HollywoodTactics: Can be used by the player or the AI, though generally not advisable, unless you have a serious [[WeHaveReserves numerical]] [[ZergRush advantage]]. Surrounding and cutting off the enemy is a good strategy, however, because it cuts them off from supplies.
* HypercompetentSidekick: The Silent Workhorse minister trait is basically this.
* IndiansWithIglas: Theoretically available, given it is possible for the vanilla game to extend into the 50's and 60's and India is an available nation. India can also be released as a puppet nation by Britain in Hearts of Iron III. You wil have boatloads of manpower and a decent industrial base, but your main constraint is Britain's AI controlling your resources. If however, the British surrender to the Germans, you will get full independence.
* InSpiteOfANail: Most often seen when importing in a scenario from VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun. Whilst the borders and existing countries will change, the leaders most often won't. Meaning that you can have AdolfHitler in charge of a democratic Germany, with or without the WorldWarOne scenario having happened.
* IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles: See IndiansWithIglas.
* JosefStalin: The Soviet dictator is a minister in the game, appropriately classed as a "Ruthless Powermonger" and "Backroom Backstabber".
* JosipBrozTito: The Yugoslav communist leader makes an appearance as both a political and a military leader.
* KaijuDefenseForce: See IndiansWithIglas.
* KatanasOfTheRisingSun: ImperialJapan is a playable faction.
* LaResistance: It's possible for partisan groups to form if unrest is high enough, with this generally being significantly more likely in occupied or colonized territory than in your home nation. High partisan activity can positively cripple a country's infrastructure, and eventually may lead to open revolts in which the partisans organize and outright seize territories from their host nation.
** The ''For The Motherland'' expansion will allow players to build "Underground" commando units to arm and mobilize resistance units in enemy-occupied territory, allowing for anything from subtle partisan resistance to sudden revolts and large-scale assaults by well-equipped rebel formations. This can be used to play merry hell with an enemy's supply infrastructure. In fact, this is one of best weapons a government-in-exile has available to it.
* TheManBehindTheMan: Any Head of Government ministers with good traits are this, especially if the Head of State is a "Happy Amateur" or "Popular Figurehead".
* MnogoNukes: Can be developed by the USSR player.
* NaziGermany: It's possible, through patience or cheating, to turn Germany back into a [[ImperialGermany Monarchy]] or a democracy. Germany will also be divided into the FRG and DDR (West and East Germany) once it has been conquered, with the sizes depending on what areas were taken by the Allies and Comintern - it is quite possible to have an entirely democratic or communist Germany.
** And if you do so, [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Adolf Hitler is replaced as leader by someone else]].
* NazisWithGnarlyWeapons: Even to the point of developing nuclear bombs, which the Nazis didn't come close to developing in real life.
* NewRomanLegions: And it's quite possible to make them far outperform their real-life counterparts.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Heavily averted. You can play any nation on Earth, including more obscure nations in the war such as Nicaragua or Liberia at the time of the game's scenarios short of microstates like the Vatican or Monaco.
* NoSwastikas: Thankfully averted by some user-made modifications, though discussion of them is generally penalized on the official forums and AfterActionReport writers often pixelate them if they're using such a mod.
* NukeEm: You can do this after some appropriately lengthy research. Using a nuke not only destroys large stacks of units, it also gives the targeted nation a major dissent hit. This causes their army to perform very weakly.
* OldSaveBonus: Paradox have a range of similar titles based on periods throughout history, and it's possible to start a game from 1066 (in ''Crusader Kings'') through several other games (''EuropaUniversalis'' and ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'') until ''Hearts of Iron II'' ends the campaign in 1964.
* PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower: Can be developed by the USA player, which is in best position to develop nukes first as was the case in real life.
* PolesWithPoleaxes: Can hold off the Nazis and the Soviets if you play well enough.
* ThePurge: The Great Purge can be conducted by the Soviets. There's good reasons to do it, though if playing a long game, many Soviet players will avoid it and gain control through less brutal means.
** Darkest Hour for HoI2 has a generic Purge-like decision. Using it gets rid of "disloyal" generals.
* {{Railroading}}: In the third installment, the British will always declare war on Germany by 1941, even if they're allied with Poland, have the United States in their sphere, or didn't even annex Austria. If you make use of the "noneutrality" cheat, your threat will shoot through the roof very quickly, so Britain may actually declare war on you specifically for annexing Austria, the Sudetenland, or Czechoslovakia.
* RedChina: What Communist China wants to, and can, be.
** Actually doing this in-game without cheating is next to impossible.
* RedsWithRockets: If one develops a Comintern nation's rockets and nuclear weapons research enough, though the Soviet Union is usually the only Comintern country that will be able to pay for it.
* RiskStyleMap: Hundreds of provinces. The third installement has somewhere in the region of ''ten thousand'' regions, achieved by subdividing territories and provinces into smaller areas that must be fought over individually.
* RPGElements: Cabinet ministers and military leaders have different traits which have varying effects on the nation, diplomacy, the military and the troops under their command.
** The third instalment introduces "strategic effects", which you can gain or loose depending on certain conditions, such as joining a faction, fighting enough battles, controlling a strait or canal, or holding enough provinces to dominate a body of water like the Baltic or the North Sea.
* SecondSinoJapaneseWar: A staple of games as either Japan or one of the Chinese nations.
* SelfImposedChallenge: How long can you last as Ethiopia (which starts the game being invaded by Italy) or Luxembourg (the smallest country represented)?
** Answers: it depends on what difficulty you are playing (it is virtually impossible to do it on most settings above normal for either difficulty or aggression barring immediate aid from the West) and indefinitely (as long as you spend most of the war cranking out land forts and AA and a token force to actually man them) respectively.
** Playing as Uruguay or Tannu Tuva and doing anything besides sitting there watching the rest of the world is also a big challenge.
*** Particularly for Tannu Tuva, as it borders on GuideDangIt. It starts as a Comintern nation surrounded by the USSR (leader of the Comintern) and Mongolia (a Soviet puppet and member of the Comintern) cut off from any access to the sea and with a pint-sized pile of resources. And via event it gets annexed by the Soviets automatically in 1944, forcing you to secede at some point prior to the event and eventually declare war on the Comintern and HOPE you have enough of a military to push out and survive. Not to mention the Japanese and Nationalist Chinese are sitting around waiting for you if you do.
*** As Tuva you can try to buy land in south America or Africa. Then everything's easy.
** Haiti anyone?
*** Playing a Central American/Caribbean micro-nation isn't too bad, because you can generally conquer your neighbors as long as you don't let the USA intervene.
**** God help you if they do.
** Playing as Madagascar here. Trying to build up an empire to take over the world and then shut it down.
* SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles
* SpanishCivilWar: Will occur in-game if you begin playing in 1936. It is usually random as to which side wins. If Republican Spain is played by a human, it is even possible to avert the entire war via a glitch.
* TacticalWithdrawal: Both on the strategic and tactical levels. Players may well choose to pull back from a section of their line in order to withdraw from an obviously lost fight towards better terrain/reinforcements or they may be pulling the attacker into an encirclement trap assisted by the rest of the front line and reserves. Defending generals with the right doctrine or who are just lucky can also get it; it shortens the front, leaving attacking and defending units who take up more room than the front allows LockedOutOfTheFight, and gives the defender a net advantage (both sides are penalised in their attack chances.)
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: FAR too many examples to list here, but for instance, if Germany attacks Poland and then makes it into a puppet state, the USSR will automatically invade the eastern part, and Poland will receive the same provinces it did [[http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/maps/Poland-Partition-px800.jpg in reality]].
* TheUKArmedForces
* TheStrategist: The player basically becomes this.
* UltimateDefenceOfTheRealm: Can be developed by the British player.
* YanksWithTanks
* WeAreNotTheWehrmacht: See IndiansWithIglas
* WinstonChurchill
* WorldWarOne: Previously done via Mods, now put into the game canon itself with Darkest Hour.
* WorldWarTwo: Pretty much the point of the game, though it is possible to avert in very rare circumstances.
** In Hearts of Iron 3, the UK is scripted to declare war by 1940 even if Germany hasn't done anything threatening yet.
*** In Hearts of Iron 2, if Germany declines to declare war on Poland or Poland gives in to Germany demands, either a war will start in the Balkans (Hungary attacking Romania or vice-versa usually) which will bring all of the super-powers to declare war on each other (just like WorldWarOne), or the USSR will just declare war on Germany, with the UK and France following up soon after.
* WorldWarThree: Happens 8 times out of 10, given the fact that the victors (for instance, the Allies and the Comintern) tend to fall out over the spoils in a pretty dramatic fashion.
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<<|RealTimeStrategy|>>
''HeartsOfIron'' is a series of WorldWarTwo TurnBasedStrategy / RealTimeStrategy and management {{Simulation Game}}s by ParadoxInteractive (creators of the related ''EuropaUniversalis'', ''CrusaderKings'' and ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'' series). The games allow players to take the role of virtually any country on Earth as of the time at the beginning of the games various scenarios. The series has (like most of Paradox's games) been well received.
!!!The series currently consists of :
* ''Hearts of Iron'' (2002)
* ''Hearts of Iron II'' (2005)
** Has two expansions: ''Doomsday'' and ''Armageddon''
** As well as two official updated version/add-ons: ''Arsenal of Democracy'', and ''Iron Cross''
** Another update which includes WorldWarOne has been released: ''Darkest Hour''
* ''Hearts of Iron III'' (2009)
** Received a download-only expansion titled ''Semper Fi''.
** Newest expansion titled ''For The Motherland'' was released recently online.
* ''[[http://hoitcg.com/ Hearts of Iron: The Card Game]]'' (2011) which uses the series name and is based on WorldWarTwo but has little else in common
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!!This video game series provides examples of:
* AdolfHitler: The first minister listed in the game's files. Rather appropriately classed as a "Powerhungry Demagogue."
** In the third installment he narrates the tutorial for you.
** The game also takes a ridiculous amount of time to tell you that his facial hair is inadequate and that he's not a very good painter.
*** And at the end of the tutorial, he [[GallowsHumor shoots himself in the head]].
* AlternateHistory: A major marketing point of the series, the game allows for things as big as the USA having a revolution in response to the Great Depression (you can choose whether to become Socialist, Fascist, Communist, or something else), to events as small as a historically-neutral country joining a certain side (Spain/Turkey/Argentina/Portugal joining the Axis, Brazil joining the Communists, the USA joining the Allies before Pearl Harbor, etc).
** The second expansion for [=HoI2=], Armageddon, features a full-on alternate history as one of it's campaigns. Nations include the United States of North America (US/Canada), the Confederates being independent and owning Mexico, a communist Britain that controls the low countries and Denmark, a communist Japanese republic, Russia still being a monarchy, Prussia still being an independent nation, and many others.
* AlternateHistoryWank: Any good player will cause this in the nation they play as: [[CrapsackWorld Germany conquering the Soviet Union and the world,]] [[SecondSinoJapaneseWar Japan conquering China,]] [[HoldTheLine France or even Poland holding off the Nazi tide,]] [[RedScare the red flag flying over all of Europe]], [[{{Eagleland}} the United States conquering the Soviet Union and Germany]], etc. Anything is possible.
** Also heavily avoided with the popular Alternate History mod [[VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg Kaiserreich]], which depicts a Germany that won WWI, but not immediately and totally, only after a long drawn out war. The standing German Empire has many internal problems by 1936. Other major factions that oppose them do exist: Communist France and Communist Britain, the loyalist remains of the Commonwealth (Canada, Australasia, Delhi), and the Japanese, Russians, and USA are wild cards.
* [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign As Long As It Looks Foreign]]: Comintern nations in the third installment will have their names written in [[TheBackwardsR faux-Cyrillic]] on the map. This led to a fair amount of complaining from Cyrillic reading fans. As usual, there's a GameMod to change this.
* AussiesWithArtillery
* AwesomeButImpractical: Super-heavy armor, strategic rockets, and super-battleships tend to be like this. However, when deployed properly, they can be QUITE effective.
* BalkanizeMe: China is represented as an alliance of several warlord factions (the Nationalists and Communists are just two groups among many) essentially functioning as an EnemyMine to defend against Japan.
* BannedInChina: Because it has Tibet as an independent country with its own flag, which the PRC has banned since 1959, and so is Manchukuo, as well as having China divided among the various warlords.
** Though Chinese modders made the most mods, and none of them have a selectable unified China.
* BonusBoss / EasterEgg: Open up the console and type "Alienattack [province number]". Watch the slaughter begin.
* BoringYetPractical: Infantry: versatile and doesn't require fuel or any other resource besides manpower, which, unfortunately, they eat [[TruthInTelevision like]] ''[[WeHaveReserves nothing]]'' [[RedShirtArmy else]].
* CanucksWithChinooks
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight, depending on how the game. With the most recent version of [=HoI=] III, France (as per ParadoxInteractive tradition) is somewhat of a monster.
** It's always averted in the sense that, even if they lose all their main territory, [[TruthInTelevision the French will continue to fight the Axis from exile until they are exterminated or the Axis is defeated]].
* CharacterPortrait: [[ShownTheirWork Every general and every minister]] for [[BeyondTheImpossible every country in the world]] has one. Some of these, like "General Camerashy" and "Admiral I'm on the Phone" have reached MemeticMutation levels.
* ChineseWithChopperSupport: Theoretically available, if one is a skilled Communist Chinese player.
* ColdWar: Generally happens after WorldWarTwo to some degree, and frequently degenerates into WorldWarThree.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: Pretty much a JustifiedTrope, especially for countries like Germany or the USSR. You can mandate new industrial development and allocate amounts of industrial capacity points to the areas of consumer goods, production, supplies, reinforcements and upgrades, with boosts or penalties to said industrial economy with certain minister types in your cabinet, whether you are at war and what choices you make in some events.
** Also justified in that during the war the Allied governments also controlled production to a larger extent than normal through rationing and other means.
** Additionally, if you try to do this when you're ''not'' at war, it can lead to high dissent.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: In the second game the AI can see everything; it can carry out amphibious assaults anywhere on the globe; and its organisation regenerates while moving. It can also materialise massive fleets that weren't anywhere on the map or in any port a moment ago when you checked with the nofog cheat to make sure there weren't any nasty surprises waiting for your amphibious assault somewhere.
** It kind of needs it though, since the out-of-the-box AI is so poor.
* CoolShip: "Advanced Super-Heavy Battleship" Need I say more?
** Yes, you do. "Nuclear Battleship".
* DelayingAction: With the correct doctrine, or luck, defenders can activate a "Delay" event, which slows down the attacking sides advance and penalises the attackers chances of causing casualties to the defenders, for a slight reduction to the defenders own chances.
* DiscOneNuke: In ''Hearts of Iron 3'', there is a stat which keeps track of what percentage of your army is made up of officers, and this directly affects how well your units perform (training more officers means your men are lead better in battle). Keeping it up to at least 100% is necessary to have your troops in good shape, but it can be boosted up to ''200%''. This means all of your military will be at '''double''' their normal organization. And since the highest the AI will raise their officer ratio is about to 120% or 130%, it's fairly easy to steamroll over everyone else just by taking advantage of this stat, at least in the early game. Multiplayer games tend to have a 'house rule' of only raising the officer ratio to 120% or so.
** The most recent patch reduced the maximum effectiveness of the officer ratio bonus to 140%. Any further than that and the player receives no bonus, beyond having additional officers in the case of attrition.
** More literally, it's perfectly possible to get nuclear weapons by 1940 if you spam nuclear research techs.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: It's quite possible, if the RandomNumberGod is unkind to them in regards to random events or if they handle the aftermath of the Great Depression especially poorly, for regions of the United States to start organizing partisan militias and declaring themselves independent, eventually resulting in either the complete collapse of the country or a revolution.
* DoubleStandard: Bizarrely, while the Rape of Nanking is an in-game event (though outside of the Japanese player's direct control) things such as TheGulag, terror bombing, or the Holocaust are officially banned.
** The USSR does have the choice of enacting the Great Purge though. The game gives a severe penalty if you ''don't'' do it.
* EasyLogistics: '''Averted'''. All units consume "supplies" that needs to be transported to the front. Getting cut off from supplies is a VERY BAD THING. Also, motorised units require fuel as well as supplies. Running out of fuel? Well, better build something other than tanks...
** ''Semper Fi'' now gives you a choice. You can use the 'realistic' supply system, which features convoys, air-drops, and is based on an engine that calculates the efficiency of your logistics system by how far from your nation's capital your troops are to simulate the logistics... or you can use 'arcade mode'. In arcade mode, you troops receive supplies no matter where they are, and as long as you don't run out of them you're fine.
* EvilVersusEvil: Depending on the course of history, it's entirely possible for the game to end in a final showdown between an alliance of fascist dictatorships and their conquered puppet states and an alliance of equally repressive Stalinist dictatorships and their puppet states.
* FinnsWithFearsomeForests: The Winter War is scripted to happen in III, although in the other games it might happen or it might not depending on the circumstances. Alas, the Finns almost always lose the war in a matter of days or weeks.
* GameMod: Countless, including ones which take the game to an AlternateHistory, WorldWarOne, TheVietnamWar or TurnOfTheMillennium setting. A ColdWar mod is presently in development). Also there is a {{Fallout}} mod.
** Some of these mods have/are being released as stand-along games, such as ''Arsenal of Democracy'', and ''Darkest Hour''.
* GaulsWithGrenades: Original, Vichy, and Free varieties.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Foreign IC", "foreign manpower" gained from appointing an Efficient Sociopath or Prince of Terror as your minister of security.
* HollywoodTactics: Can be used by the player or the AI, though generally not advisable, unless you have a serious [[WeHaveReserves numerical]] [[ZergRush advantage]]. Surrounding and cutting off the enemy is a good strategy, however, because it cuts them off from supplies.
* HypercompetentSidekick: The Silent Workhorse minister trait is basically this.
* IndiansWithIglas: Theoretically available, given it is possible for the vanilla game to extend into the 50's and 60's and India is an available nation. India can also be released as a puppet nation by Britain in Hearts of Iron III. You wil have boatloads of manpower and a decent industrial base, but your main constraint is Britain's AI controlling your resources. If however, the British surrender to the Germans, you will get full independence.
* InSpiteOfANail: Most often seen when importing in a scenario from VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun. Whilst the borders and existing countries will change, the leaders most often won't. Meaning that you can have AdolfHitler in charge of a democratic Germany, with or without the WorldWarOne scenario having happened.
* IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles: See IndiansWithIglas.
* JosefStalin: The Soviet dictator is a minister in the game, appropriately classed as a "Ruthless Powermonger" and "Backroom Backstabber".
* JosipBrozTito: The Yugoslav communist leader makes an appearance as both a political and a military leader.
* KaijuDefenseForce: See IndiansWithIglas.
* KatanasOfTheRisingSun: ImperialJapan is a playable faction.
* LaResistance: It's possible for partisan groups to form if unrest is high enough, with this generally being significantly more likely in occupied or colonized territory than in your home nation. High partisan activity can positively cripple a country's infrastructure, and eventually may lead to open revolts in which the partisans organize and outright seize territories from their host nation.
** The ''For The Motherland'' expansion will allow players to build "Underground" commando units to arm and mobilize resistance units in enemy-occupied territory, allowing for anything from subtle partisan resistance to sudden revolts and large-scale assaults by well-equipped rebel formations. This can be used to play merry hell with an enemy's supply infrastructure. In fact, this is one of best weapons a government-in-exile has available to it.
* TheManBehindTheMan: Any Head of Government ministers with good traits are this, especially if the Head of State is a "Happy Amateur" or "Popular Figurehead".
* MnogoNukes: Can be developed by the USSR player.
* NaziGermany: It's possible, through patience or cheating, to turn Germany back into a [[ImperialGermany Monarchy]] or a democracy. Germany will also be divided into the FRG and DDR (West and East Germany) once it has been conquered, with the sizes depending on what areas were taken by the Allies and Comintern - it is quite possible to have an entirely democratic or communist Germany.
** And if you do so, [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Adolf Hitler is replaced as leader by someone else]].
* NazisWithGnarlyWeapons: Even to the point of developing nuclear bombs, which the Nazis didn't come close to developing in real life.
* NewRomanLegions: And it's quite possible to make them far outperform their real-life counterparts.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Heavily averted. You can play any nation on Earth, including more obscure nations in the war such as Nicaragua or Liberia at the time of the game's scenarios short of microstates like the Vatican or Monaco.
* NoSwastikas: Thankfully averted by some user-made modifications, though discussion of them is generally penalized on the official forums and AfterActionReport writers often pixelate them if they're using such a mod.
* NukeEm: You can do this after some appropriately lengthy research. Using a nuke not only destroys large stacks of units, it also gives the targeted nation a major dissent hit. This causes their army to perform very weakly.
* OldSaveBonus: Paradox have a range of similar titles based on periods throughout history, and it's possible to start a game from 1066 (in ''Crusader Kings'') through several other games (''EuropaUniversalis'' and ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'') until ''Hearts of Iron II'' ends the campaign in 1964.
* PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower: Can be developed by the USA player, which is in best position to develop nukes first as was the case in real life.
* PolesWithPoleaxes: Can hold off the Nazis and the Soviets if you play well enough.
* ThePurge: The Great Purge can be conducted by the Soviets. There's good reasons to do it, though if playing a long game, many Soviet players will avoid it and gain control through less brutal means.
** Darkest Hour for HoI2 has a generic Purge-like decision. Using it gets rid of "disloyal" generals.
* {{Railroading}}: In the third installment, the British will always declare war on Germany by 1941, even if they're allied with Poland, have the United States in their sphere, or didn't even annex Austria. If you make use of the "noneutrality" cheat, your threat will shoot through the roof very quickly, so Britain may actually declare war on you specifically for annexing Austria, the Sudetenland, or Czechoslovakia.
* RedChina: What Communist China wants to, and can, be.
** Actually doing this in-game without cheating is next to impossible.
* RedsWithRockets: If one develops a Comintern nation's rockets and nuclear weapons research enough, though the Soviet Union is usually the only Comintern country that will be able to pay for it.
* RiskStyleMap: Hundreds of provinces. The third installement has somewhere in the region of ''ten thousand'' regions, achieved by subdividing territories and provinces into smaller areas that must be fought over individually.
* RPGElements: Cabinet ministers and military leaders have different traits which have varying effects on the nation, diplomacy, the military and the troops under their command.
** The third instalment introduces "strategic effects", which you can gain or loose depending on certain conditions, such as joining a faction, fighting enough battles, controlling a strait or canal, or holding enough provinces to dominate a body of water like the Baltic or the North Sea.
* SecondSinoJapaneseWar: A staple of games as either Japan or one of the Chinese nations.
* SelfImposedChallenge: How long can you last as Ethiopia (which starts the game being invaded by Italy) or Luxembourg (the smallest country represented)?
** Answers: it depends on what difficulty you are playing (it is virtually impossible to do it on most settings above normal for either difficulty or aggression barring immediate aid from the West) and indefinitely (as long as you spend most of the war cranking out land forts and AA and a token force to actually man them) respectively.
** Playing as Uruguay or Tannu Tuva and doing anything besides sitting there watching the rest of the world is also a big challenge.
*** Particularly for Tannu Tuva, as it borders on GuideDangIt. It starts as a Comintern nation surrounded by the USSR (leader of the Comintern) and Mongolia (a Soviet puppet and member of the Comintern) cut off from any access to the sea and with a pint-sized pile of resources. And via event it gets annexed by the Soviets automatically in 1944, forcing you to secede at some point prior to the event and eventually declare war on the Comintern and HOPE you have enough of a military to push out and survive. Not to mention the Japanese and Nationalist Chinese are sitting around waiting for you if you do.
*** As Tuva you can try to buy land in south America or Africa. Then everything's easy.
** Haiti anyone?
*** Playing a Central American/Caribbean micro-nation isn't too bad, because you can generally conquer your neighbors as long as you don't let the USA intervene.
**** God help you if they do.
** Playing as Madagascar here. Trying to build up an empire to take over the world and then shut it down.
* SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles
* SpanishCivilWar: Will occur in-game if you begin playing in 1936. It is usually random as to which side wins. If Republican Spain is played by a human, it is even possible to avert the entire war via a glitch.
* TacticalWithdrawal: Both on the strategic and tactical levels. Players may well choose to pull back from a section of their line in order to withdraw from an obviously lost fight towards better terrain/reinforcements or they may be pulling the attacker into an encirclement trap assisted by the rest of the front line and reserves. Defending generals with the right doctrine or who are just lucky can also get it; it shortens the front, leaving attacking and defending units who take up more room than the front allows LockedOutOfTheFight, and gives the defender a net advantage (both sides are penalised in their attack chances.)
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: FAR too many examples to list here, but for instance, if Germany attacks Poland and then makes it into a puppet state, the USSR will automatically invade the eastern part, and Poland will receive the same provinces it did [[http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/maps/Poland-Partition-px800.jpg in reality]].
* TheUKArmedForces
* TheStrategist: The player basically becomes this.
* UltimateDefenceOfTheRealm: Can be developed by the British player.
* YanksWithTanks
* WeAreNotTheWehrmacht: See IndiansWithIglas
* WinstonChurchill
* WorldWarOne: Previously done via Mods, now put into the game canon itself with Darkest Hour.
* WorldWarTwo: Pretty much the point of the game, though it is possible to avert in very rare circumstances.
** In Hearts of Iron 3, the UK is scripted to declare war by 1940 even if Germany hasn't done anything threatening yet.
*** In Hearts of Iron 2, if Germany declines to declare war on Poland or Poland gives in to Germany demands, either a war will start in the Balkans (Hungary attacking Romania or vice-versa usually) which will bring all of the super-powers to declare war on each other (just like WorldWarOne), or the USSR will just declare war on Germany, with the UK and France following up soon after.
* WorldWarThree: Happens 8 times out of 10, given the fact that the victors (for instance, the Allies and the Comintern) tend to fall out over the spoils in a pretty dramatic fashion.
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<<|RealTimeStrategy|>>
