Hearts of Iron 4 DLC Guide By Leana Hafer

Paradox's grand-strategy wargame Hearts of Iron 4 hasn’t built up as powerful a salvo of DLC as its other squadmates in the Paradox Development Studio roster, but with the release of Man the Guns there’s now enough extra stuff available for purchase that you might want to know which order to attack them in.

We’ve called each paid offering to attention to assess their capabilities and see how well they pass muster.

Note on the Expansion Pass: If you’ve never heard of the Hearts of Iron 4 Expansion Pass before, none of this information is relevant as it’s no longer available for purchase. But if you did get a hold of it back around launch and are curious, every major DLC mentioned in this guide is included with the Expansion Pass up to Man the Guns. Anything from La Resistance onwards isn't included and must be purchased separately.

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What is the best Hearts of Iron 4 DLC?

Best Hearts of Iron 4 DLC (New Features):

Waking the Tiger Man the Guns (could be no.1 if you enjoy naval warfare more) Together for Victory Death or Dishonor La Résistance

Best Hearts of Iron 4 DLC (New Focus Trees):

La Résistance Waking the Tiger / Man the Guns Death or Dishonor Together for Victory

Which Hearts of Iron 4 DLCs do you need for a 'Complete' Experience?

Germany - Death or Dishonor, Waking the Tiger, Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack, Axis Armor Pack

- Death or Dishonor, Waking the Tiger, Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack, Axis Armor Pack Japan - Waking the Tiger, Man the Guns, Death or Dishonor, Axis Armor Pack

- Waking the Tiger, Man the Guns, Death or Dishonor, Axis Armor Pack Manchukuo, All Chinese Factions - Waking the Tiger

- Waking the Tiger Britain - Man the Guns, Together for Victory, Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack

- Man the Guns, Together for Victory, Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack United States - Man the Guns, Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack



- Man the Guns, Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack France - Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack, La Résistance

- Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack, La Résistance Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, British Raj - Together for Victory, Man the Guns

- Together for Victory, Man the Guns Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia - Death or Dishonor

- Death or Dishonor Spain, Portugal - La Résistance



Hearts of Iron 4: Together for Victory

Released: 2016

Price: $15

Available from: Steam, Paradox Store

What’s in it?

New focus trees for the Commonwealth nations: Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the British Raj.



Autonomy system allows subject countries to assert their independence over time, and for overlords to integrate subjects more fully.

Allows asking for, in addition to offering, lend-lease of equipment.

Spearhead command allows your custom battleplans to include more direct, focused assaults.

Technology sharing allows less advanced faction members to get discounts on technologies that have already been researched by another faction member.

New voiceovers in German, French, Italian, British English, American English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.

19 new infantry and airplane models for the featured nations.

Read our Hearts of Iron 4: Together for Victory review for more...

Is it worth it?

The focus trees for the Commonwealth nations are pretty underwhelming. There are mods available on the Steam workshop for several them that, in my opinion, are more fun to play with than the official DLC ones. How much you’ll enjoy the rest of the grab bag features relies a fair bit on how much you enjoy playing minor nations. Autonomy can be a fun way to go from a subject to an equal partner, but from the overlord side, you’ll rarely have the time or resources to do much with it before the war ends. Spearheads can be a nice time-saver, but also don’t do anything you couldn’t accomplish already by micro-managing your tanks. Honestly, my main reason to recommend it is the new unit models and voice overs, which help add texture and immersion to the war.

Hearts of Iron 4: Death or Dishonor

Released: 2017

Price: $10

Available from: Steam, Paradox Store

What’s in it?

New focus trees for four minor European powers: Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

Equipment conversion allows you to re-purpose old or captured equipment (such as refitting older Panzer models into StuGs).

Licensing allows you to gain access to another nation’s equipment designs in exchange for industrial capacity, or license your own designs for a profit.

New subject types for Fascist nations such as the Reichskommissariat which behave differently from normal puppets.

New unit models and voice overs for the featured nations.

Read our Hearts of Iron 4: Death or Dishonor review for more...

Is it worth it?

I think the content designers did an overall better job on the focuses and events in this pack than they did in Together for Victory. From restoring the Austro-Hungarian Empire to dealing with King Carol of Romania’s ongoing antics and shenanigans, I got some of my most entertaining playthroughs trying to scrape by on the mean streets of South-Central Europe. I don’t really find myself using equipment conversion that often, but licensing is great if you’re playing a country with limited research slots and you don’t, for instance, have the luxury of always staying up-to-date in fighter tech. As with Together for Victory, the new unit models and voice overs offer a lot of value for me - but your mileage may vary if you’re the NATO counter type of player.

Hearts of Iron 4: Waking the Tiger

Released: 2018

Price: $20

Available from: Steam, Paradox Store

What’s in it?

New focus trees for Communist China, Nationalist China, the Chinese Warlords, and the imperial puppet state of Manchukuo.

New focus tree branches for two of the major Axis powers: An 'Oppose Hitler' path for Germany that can lead to the restoration of the Kaiserreich or a democratic, constitutional monarchy, as well as democratic and communist paths for Japan.

Command Abilities allow generals with certain traits to spend Command Power on temporary, unique buffs to the armies they lead.

Expanded Decisions list including the ability to form or reform some anachronistic/ahistorical nations or develop strategic resources in historical areas that did not have them at the start of the war, but were discovered to have them later.

Border Conflict mechanic allows certain countries to engage in a limited skirmish over control of a single state without declaring all-out war (Chinese Factions only).

Infiltration mechanics allow Chinese communists to subvert local authorities and seize control of states covertly.

Power Struggle mechanic allows Chinese factions to compete for national leadership politically, without bloodshed.

Troops who remain in a hot or cold area long enough can become acclimatized, gaining modified unit models and reduced penalties for fighting in that climate.

Air wings can now be sent as volunteers along with land divisions.

New orders give more control over what types of targets strategic bombers prioritize.

Sending military attachés allows countries who can’t send volunteers to aid a warring nation and gain some army xp.

Allows merging of under-strength divisions.

Allows you to set custom unit insignias for each, individual division.

Adds a minimap.

New unit models for Chinese infantry, cavalry, artillery, and planes.

Read our Hearts of Iron 4: Waking the Tiger review for more...

Is it worth it?

If that feature list seems huge compared to the previous two expansions, that’s because it is. Waking the Tiger is definitely the most value you can get for your money of the currently available Hearts of Iron 4 DLCs. It’s the first expansion that really feels like a Paradox expansion in how much it changes things up. The Chinese focus trees aren’t all great - for instance, a lot of the interesting power struggle stuff for China becomes irrelevant 90 percent of the time since the United Front must either band together or get absolutely demolished by Japan.

Border Conflicts, especially, seem like a rushed feature that doesn’t always behave in logical or predictable ways. The new options for Japan and Germany are a lot of fun, though. The new unit models and Acclimatization system bring even more realism and some unique strategic concerns - you don’t want to train troops you plan to send to North Africa in the mountains of Montana, for example.

Hearts of Iron 4: Man the Guns

Released: 2019

Price: $20

Available from: Steam, Paradox Store

What's in it?

New Focus Trees for the US, UK, Mexico & Netherlands, offering a variety of alt-history and in-depth narrative options.

New Ship Designer tool allows you to customise your ships by equipping different components to different slots.

Ships can now return to a shipyard to refit and upgrade to a newer version.

New Government-in-Exile feature allows you to keep playing even when you've lost your core territory.

Admirals have now been given traits similar to what was introduced for land generals in Waking the Tiger.

You can now deploy mines to sea zones to help defend key water-based territory.

New Amphibious equipment in the form of tanks and troop transports have been unlocked for naval invasions & attacking across rivers.

You can designate certain ocean territories as 'restricted' or 'off-limits' to your transports, allowing you to customise the route your shipping takes.

Read our Hearts of Iron 4: Man the Guns review for more...

Is it worth it?

It's a pretty definitive 'yes', although the caveat is if you typically avoid big naval powers or generally don't play the nations that are getting the most improvements here, then you may struggle to get much out of this. Outside of that though, while it doesn't offer as many features as Waking the Tiger added, these features have a lot more impact and take better advantage of the changes that have come as part of the 1.6 Ironclad update (namely, the addition of Fuel and the overhaul of naval combat mechanics).

Being able to design ships, refit and all of the other little naval goodies completely revolutionises the naval game, where-as the Government-in-Exile mechanic is crucial if you like play nations that typically can get steam-rolled by larger powers. The new focus trees, while a bit complex to navigate, also bring the four targeted nations to up to the same level of flexibility nations like Japan, Germany and the Balkan nations. Overall, this is either tied, or a very close second, in terms of value, and the only real deciding factor is how much you enjoy the naval aspects of WW2.

Hearts of Iron 4: La Résistance

Released: 2020

Price: $19.99

Available from: Steam, Paradox Store

What's in it?

New national focus trees for France, Spain & Portugal

Improved Spanish Civil War, with potential for four-way conflicts

Can create an Espionage Agency & recruit operatives

Operatives that can perform missions and operations

Scout planes, Armored Cars + special recon companies

Collaboration Governments

New Intel system and Intel Ledger

Read our Hearts of Iron 4: La Resistance review for more...

Is it worth it?

This one is less certain than previous expansions. It's not that it's a 'bad' expansion, but the new features are less ground-breaking and/or have less of an impact than what's come before. If you're interested in the Iberian peninsular and playing a more fleshed out Spanish Civil War (either as one of the Spanish factions, or as someone like Portugal) then this is a must-have. If you don't care though, the new SCW potential can still trigger without the DLC, adding another tool to the sandbox. The new units fill interesting little niches we didn't know were there, and the Intel system is a bit more interesting now.

But things like Espionage and the new 'agencies' don't pack as much punch as we might have expected. I guess they couldn't have designed this system to be too powerful as it might upset the game for non-buyers, but as it stands it's a fun system to play around with, but it's not game-changing. Or even war-winning, although we've yet to explore that fully. France gets some unexpected love here as well, and the free 1.9 Husky patch improves the way garrisons and resistances work.

Hearts of Iron 4 Next DLC

The next DLC for Hearts of Iron 4 is likely to cover the Soviet Union in some form. According to the rough HOI4 roadmap that was updated in April 2020, along with Italy and Poland the Soviet Union is one of the last 'core' nations to receive any kind of special attention or overhaul. When we spoke to Dan Lind at PDXCon 2019, he mentioned that many of the changes that came with La Resistance were needed before a full 'Eastern Front' rework could be considered. Tackling Poland and the Soviet Union in a new expansion seems likely.

According to this dev diary, the studio are working on the next two patches simultaneously - 1.10 'Collie' and 1.11 'Barbarossa'. Unless it's one massive red herring, we reckon the new expansion will drop at the same time as the 1.11 patch, and it will themed (at least partly) on the Soviet Union and the eastern front.

Miscellaneous DLCs

Radio Pack - $6.99

What's in it?

A total of 35 new songs spread across three faction specific radio channels, each with their own unique look and design.

Is it worth it?

The music in HOI4 is already quite good, but if you were looking to double-down on this side of things then there are worse things to spend your money on.

Allied Speeches Pack - $4.99

What's in it?

Another audio pack, this DLC contains around 70 minutes worth of speeches, spread across 13 specific excepts, recreating famous addresses given during the time period. These includes notables such as Neville Chamberlain's "Peace in our Time", Churchill's "We will fight them on the beaches" and even MacArthur's "I have returned".

Is it worth it?

If you're a history buff who already knows about these famous lines, then it might be a nice value add to have them playing while you're playing the game. If you're not that bothered this essentially becomes more background noise, and not even the musical kind.

Axis Armor Pack - $5.99

What's in it?

19 German Armor Models

22 Japanese Armor Models

12 Italian Armor Models

Is it worth it?

This is pack aimed at a very specific set of WW2 enthusiasts. If you're one of them, you probably already have this but this is basically just a cosmetic pack that adds in new skins for specific types of vehicles. Depending on your Division composition you might not even see most of them.

Allied Armor Pack - $5.99

What's in it?

7 British Armor Models

17 American Armor Models

8 French Armor Models

13 Soviet Armor Models

8 Additional Tank Models for each of the major Allied powers, for a total of 32.

Is it worth it?

This pack was released in June 2020 and is essentially mean't to be a sequel to the Axis-themed armor pack. It's worth nothing this pack also includes unit skins that were previously available as part of the Colonel Edition, below which may reduce its value depending on whether you already have that or not. There's not as much interest in Allied armor models as there is Axis, but it does add another layer of authenticity.

Colonel Edition Upgrade Pack - $10

What’s in it?

Seven new models for heavy cruisers from various Allied and Axis nations.

Eight new tank models each for the Soviet Union, United States, Britain, Germany, and France (for a total of 40).

Is it worth it?

47 new models is a lot, but this is purely visual. If you don’t mind your Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs looking identical (or you play with NATO counters), it’s an easy one to skip.

Sabaton Soundtrack - $3

What’s in it?

Five World War II-themed songs from Swedish power metal band Sabaton.

Is it worth it?

If you like Sabaton, sure.

Sabaton Soundtrack Vol 2 - $6

What’s in it?

Ten more World War II-themed songs from Swedish power metal band Sabaton

Is it worth it?

If you really like Sabaton.

Make sure you check all our DLC Buying Guides regularly, especially after a major DLC release or around a major sales event. We'll always keep these up-to-date so you're fully informed as to what to buy.