

It’s clear that a ton of work has already gone into the mod but some lingering issues are worth addressing. With several – but not all – nations loaded up with fairly detailed National Focus Trees and dozens of period events firing off to help set the mood, it’s a fun jaunt through some of the major set-piece moments of the Cold War era. Left cold? Try our guide to the best Hearts of Iron 4 Mods instead Get enough influence over a state and you can force it to become a puppet and join your bloc. Each nation has a level of independence from foreign influence that is determined by the size of its economy, with the smaller states much more vulnerable to the geopolitical machinations of the superpowers.

The thing that seems really promising is the Influence mechanics that allow the Great Powers to influence smaller nations. There are new mechanics for tweaking the social and fiscal policy of your nation, more than a dozen new types of buildings, and a built-from-the-ground-up economic system that adds debt, GDP, investment, and resources into the otherwise barebones HoI4 economic system of civilian and military factories.Īll that stuff is mostly gravy, though. In terms of features, it brings to the table a fairly complex resource management and economic system built specifically for the mod. The 1949 start date lets you get in on the action as the titular Iron Curtain is falling and the world is firmly congealing into two ideologically opposed blocs, while the other two dates let you deal with some set-piece crises like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War
Each decade has its own set of branching Focus Trees, with obvious emphasis given to the post-war superpowers. The mod has three start dates: 1949, 1960, and an unfinished 1973 option – with around 20 years of content for many of the major players of the Cold War. Otherwise, CWIC absolutely nails the Cold War look and feel that it is striving for. It ladles on the atmosphere thick and it works, with the sole exception of the map colors – which look a little too much like the bright paint-blobs of EUIV – and the army-issue stencil fonts might feel aesthetically appropriate but are a bit hard to read zoomed out. There are scanlines and CRT Screens galore. It has a truly gorgeous looking background for the tech tree, and period-appropriate design for the menus, and Focus Trees icons. The mod has three start dates: 1949, 1960, and an unfinished 1973 optionĬlearly, a ton of work has gone into the look of the UI as well.
