So, you want to know about Hearts of Iron 4 mods? Hearts of Iron IV is the most popular of Paradox’s grand strategy games, and a great war game on top of that. Its continued and growing success comes from the mod scene. Hearts of Iron 4 mods range from quality-of-life and gameplay improvements to full-on reskins taking you to the modern day, WW1, or even an alternative timeline.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular Hearts of Iron 4 mods on Steam Workshop right now. You can also grab mods directly from the Paradox forums as well. Doing this is necessary if you have the Paradox Store version of the game, but also, some mods are only available via Paradox’s forums because their design won’t play nicely with the workshop.
Make sure you check to see whether the mod you want to install is compatible with your version of the game. After a major update, it can often take the mod teams a while to update mods to the most recent patch, so you may need to roll back your game to an earlier version to keep playing.
These are the best Hearts of Iron 4 mods:
No Hearts of Iron 4 mod list would be complete without tipping the hat to the most popular alternate history mod, Kaiserreich. While this overhaul doesn’t touch as many mechanics as other mods on this list, it does alot of work to create a fascinating, immersive new setting that starts with a simple question: What if Germany had won WW1?
At the time of writing Road to ‘56 is actually the most popular Hearts of Iron 4 mod on Steam Workshop. While it doesn’t offer an overhaul of the setting or theme, those using it will get additional alternate-history paths based on the vanilla design, an overhauled tech-tree, and more events and other content to extend the timeline right through to 1956.
Turn Hearts of Iron IV into the best Star Wars game with this up-and-coming mod. Palpatine’s Gamble is still in early alpha, but it’s also the Star Wars Clone Wars experience we never knew we needed. This will completely transform the WW2 game into a grand strategy romp of galactic conquest in a galaxy far, far away.
This mod is the end result of a merge between two older projects – Millennium Dawn and Hearts of Iron 4 Modern Day – both of which provide ‘modern’ settings for Hearts of Iron 4. The new hybrid project is now making great strides, and is the first port of call for anyone wanting a contemporary version of Hearts of Iron 4.
If the year 2000 is a bit too contemporary for your tastes, how about the Cold War instead? Cold War Iron Curtain: A World Divided has three start dates covering 1949, 1960, and 1970. You can live out any number of Cold War fantasies as you try to navigate through a post-WW2 world trying to come to terms with the emergence of global superpowers like Russia and the USA.
More than any other historical setting, WW1 is probably the next best fit for something like Hearts of Iron IV. It’s a good thing then that someone has created a full-blown conversion mod for this era. The Great War mod turns back the clock to let you fight this devastating conflict.
If Star Wars or alternative history is not proving to be a fertile enough playground for you, how about the Fallout universe? Old World Blues transports you to a custom map of North America in 2275, around the timeframe of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.
The first of our recommended utility mods, one of the last bastions of vanilla Hearts of Iron IV mechanics that really need a face lift is peace conferences. They work, but it doesn’t seem like it’s been much of a priority. If you want to take matters into your own hands – literally – then you can grab the Player-Led Peace Conferences mod.
A common complaint with veteran players is that the AI, even on the harder difficulties, can make less-than-optimal choices. If you also agree, the Expert A.I 4.0 mod may be essential. There’s no AI-connected area that this mod hasn’t touched and improved, apart from certain hardcoded behaviours that can’t be changed.
The Strategic View Adjustments mod is a modest quality-of-life mod that focuses on helping you organise and track your military forces, especially if there are a lot of them and/or you’re fighting across multiple theatres.
