Summary
- Hearts of Iron 4 modding scene offers free expansions with total gameplay conversions for a fresh experience daily.
- Mods like End of a New Beginning and Metro Genesis bring historical settings and post-apocalypse worlds to life with new gameplay.
- The Road to 56 and Millennium Dawn expand the base game with alternate histories and modern settings, offering hours of new gameplay.
Though Hearts of Iron 4 has mountains of content with its many DLCs, its modding scene is truly extraordinary, radically changing the gameplay experience from top to bottom. Buzzing with activity and full of professional-level devs, the Steam Workshop promises a seemingly endless amount of free expansions to an already stellar game.
Hearts Of Iron 4: Best DLC, Ranked
These DLCs in Hearts of Iron 4 are worth the purchase as they improve the game's playable experience by diversifying its mechanics among other things.
These mods offer total, wide-ranging gameplay conversions, whether it be changing the World War 2 of Hearts of Iron 4 setting to the Mojave Wasteland of Fallout or alternate history reimaginings that brim with tantalizing new ways to play the game. Gameplay mods radically change the game experience, adding hundreds of hours of playtime, and new brilliant mods are released every single day.
10 End Of A New Beginning
The Victorian Era Reimagined
- Created by EoaNB team
- Hurtle back to the age of empire and industry
- Download it here
While Victoria 3 covers much of the same period, some gamers justifiably prefer the in-depth war system of Hearts of Iron 4 to the economics simulator of the Victoria franchise which even beginners can struggle with. Beginning in the 1860s and running up to the beginning of WW2, this mod charts the rise of the industrial empires and the wide-ranging effects of newly discovered nationalism.
Boasting incredible alternate history paths for many nations, End of a New Beginning is perfect for 19th-century history enthusiasts or gamers not quite on the same level as Victoria 3 but wanting to explore the period regardless.
9 Metro Genesis
The Russian Post-Apocalypse On A Vast Scale
- Created by Heavy
- Bring the underground world of Metro to life
- Download it here
Taking inspiration from the Metro novels and game series, this mod reinterprets Hearts of Iron 4's key systems into the world of the underground. Taking place across a subway map in the post-apocalypse and using the idiosyncratic bullet economy, this mod radically transposes the core ideas of the base game and turns it into a tense thriller.
Metro Exodus: The 15 Best Mods
Metro Exodus is a great game, but these mods tweak various aspects to make the experience smoother and more enjoyable.
With 18 unique factions all with tailor-made focus trees, this mod is ideal for those seeking to play Hearts of Iron 4 like never before.
8 Star Wars: Palpatine's Gamble
Time To Get Intergalactic
- Created by Ptschalon
- A full conversion mod that brings Hearts of Iron 4 to the Star Wars world
- Download it here
If any mod demonstrates the sheer insanity of Hearts of Iron 4 modders, it's this one. Essentially creating an entirely new game within the framework of Paradox's source, Ptschalon and team had brought the worldwide warfare of WW2 into the intergalactic stage. Taking place during the brilliantly realized Clone Wars saga, play as a variety of competing factions, all with unique focus trees and storylines, while taking over entire planets and star systems instead of nations.
This one is tailor-made for Star Wars lore fanatics or people who wanted to love games like Stellaris but wanted the robust combat system of Hearts of Iron 4 instead.
7 Hearts of Iron 4: The Great War
Get Bogged Down In Trench Warfare
- Created by Wolferos
- For those starved of WW1 games
- Download it here
World War 1 is represented poorly in the gaming space (though there are some great examples). This mod intends to fix that by using Hearts of Iron 4's base mechanics and overhauling them for the age of trench warfare. Instead of an age of mechanized warfare, this mod emphasizes raw manpower and diplomacy above all else. Progress requires a massive economy and a smart strategy, enhanced by all new focus trees for the major nations.
With a meticulously reworked map to represent the state of the world in the early 1910s, this mod is ideal for history lovers and war gamers alike.
6 Old World Blues
Explore The Post-Apocalypse In A Whole New Way
- Created by President Tandi
- Explore Fallout's unique vision of the post-apocalypse on Hearts of Iron 4's grand scale
- Download it here
The Fallout world and lore are massive, but the games have barely scratched the surface. Old World Blues, created by President Tandi (presumably not the in-game character) and their remarkable team have brought together the most complete and playable vision of Fallout's world ever conceived.
With bespoke mission trees, units, and storylines made for the many nations across the United States, this is a Fallout fan's dream or for fresh followers following the brilliant new TV show.
5 The Road To 56
The Vanilla Expansion Everyone Should Play
- Created by Greatexperiment
- The definitive gameplay expansion that extends the base game
- Download it here
More than any other mod, The Road to 56 maintains the spirit of the original game but expands and improves in almost every way. Greatexperiment and their team have done a mind-boggling amount of work to overhaul the focus trees of the majority of nations in the game, greatly expanding the potential nations to play, and extending the tech trees far beyond the normal endpoint of 1945.
Where the main game only gives interesting alternate paths to the major countries, The Road to 56 ensures that even the long-neglected difficult South American and African nations have interesting possibilities in a greatly expanded version of the base game.
4 Pax Britannica: An Imperial Timeline
A Steampunk Vision Of The Past
- Created by New Grestin
- For those who want their alternate history a little more fantastical
- Download it here
Pax Britannica is a dream for steampunk lovers. The mod occurs after a failed American revolution and a second technological renaissance (spurred on by Nikola Tesla's Wireless Power concept), resulting in Victorian Britain becoming an undisputed world hegemon. However, as the beginning of the game dawns in 1933, resurgent powers rise to challenge British dominance.
With an exciting alternate history setting and a focus on Wellsian science-fiction, Pax Britannica is a completely fresh take on Hearts of Iron 4's core mechanics and easily one of the best steampunk strategy games around.
3 Millennium Dawn
Modernity In All Its Complexity
- Created by Millenium Dawn Mod team
- The modern world is a playground
- Download it here
Where most Hearts of Iron 4 mods explore alternate history or other historical periods than WW2, Millennium Dawn brings the game systems into the 21st Century in 2001. With radically strange and exciting focus trees for each major nation, Millennium Dawn is one part exciting modern war simulator, one part reinvention of every core mechanic in the base game, and one part richly researched historical masterpiece that has unsurprisingly taken years to come to fruition.
Though extremely complex, Millennium Dawn is like an entirely new game that remains popular among players and is one of the best grand strategy games set in the modern era.
2 The New Order
The Cold War Like It's Never Been Seen
- Created by The New Order Developers team
- What would have happened if the Axis won WW2?
- Download it here
Often abbreviated to TNO, The New Order has a rabid fanbase for good reason. Set in the early 1960s in a version of history where the Axis won WW2, a new Cold War has spawned between an isolated United States, a German Reich whose head is on the verge of death, and discontent on all sides.
10 Best Historical Board Games For History Buffs
History buffs will find plenty to occupy their time with the following board games.
This mod completely overhauls the gameplay of the source game and expands mechanics on a grand scale, with each major nation having unique challenges to deal with in the immediate prelude to nuclear war.
1 Kaiserreich
The Definitive Alternate History Experience
- Created by Kaiserdevs team
- What would WW2 look like if the Triple Alliance won WW1?
- Download it here
Perhaps the best-known alternate history mod available for Hearts of Iron 4, Kaiserreich tells the story of how the world developed in the wake of Triple Alliance victory in WW1. Communist states have popped up in France and the UK, the old French Republic lie in Africa waiting for their moment to retake the old country, and a beleaguered German Empire struggles to hold its vast domain together.
With some of the best-written storylines in any mod for Hearts of Iron 4, Kaiserreich is ideal for players looking for ways to freshen up the well-known path of real history.
Hearts of Iron 4
- Released
- June 6, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Paradox Development Studio
- Genre(s)
- Grand Strategy
- Platform(s)
- PC
