Hoi4 Top 5 Countries For New Players

hello and welcome back to another hearts of iron for video so today this is gonna be my top 5 picks for the best countries that you can play as a new player to the game now I'm gonna say right off the bat but this is not an exhaustive or a definitive list this is something that is personal preference and at the end of the day you just have to play the game and try things out there's no one country that is going to work best there's infinite strategies that you can use to win or meet your objectives whatever that may be and as well there's a lot of replayability to this game so it depends on how you want to play each country if you want to follow a historical route or not and also what settings you're actually using in the game because you can modify it just about everything there is and that doesn't even take into account actual mods that the community has made so at the end of the day this is gonna be my top 5 list but remember this is all personal preference and it's just gonna be my own experience with the game and why I think each country is the best for new players so without further ado let's get right into it ok so first up on our list here this is coming in at number 5 the first country that I recommend for new players is going to be France now this is a tough one for me to actually pick specifically because you're gonna have to deal with the Germans and the Italians as starting a war in 1939 and that can be very difficult when you're playing single-player specifically because the Maginot Line here offers a very good defensive line but again up in the north here basically how it was done in real life it can be very difficult to hold this line the Germans are gonna have a very strong economy and a lot of troops that can break you same with the Italians down in the south you do have this mountainous region if they do push past it it can be very difficult to hold them off once they reach around this region one thing that I always recommend if you're a new player though a great way to defend yourself if you want to learn a little bit more about the mechanics and survive for longer you can always just build up a wall of level five or six forts across your entire border and that way they will basically never break you so it gives you more time to react and learn I guess a little bit more about the defense so the reason why I picked this country over some other ones basically because you're going to be in the heart of the action you know 1939 you were right there facing off against two majors and I think that's a great thing actually because even though you might lose your first couple games playing France it's a great opportunity to again learn about defense and how you can actually manage your army especially when you're facing a stronger force it's gonna teach you a lot of the fundamentals to this game because defense is just as necessary as offense the other great thing is if you go Democratic which you're probably gonna want to do you'll be a part of the Allies so the UK can lend you some support and as you reach the 1941 stage the USA will come into the war and that's gonna make things a lot easier because they have the factories the planes the ships and the troops to back you up and really start to help you push into the German territory come 1941 when the Soviets are also fighting them so that's basically why the France is my first pick it's also because they have a very expansive focus tree with a lot of different options and routes that you can go down so I think it's a great chance to really experience every aspect of this game you can take this country just about any way you want really and really dive into the mechanics of the game itself so for that reason France is going to be number five on my list okay and so tied for fifth place I know you probably thought I was gonna go to number four but I'm a liar I'm just going another fifth one here so China is my second pick for the fifth position and I was stuck deciding on this so that's why I'm including it the reason why I think China is a great country to play especially for new players is again because you're gonna have to deal with a lot of defense especially early on because your war starts around the 1937 range with Japan but the other great thing is you also get to learn the mechanics of defending against a naval invasion the Japanese have a large fleet and as China you do not so because of that they're gonna constantly be trying to do naval invasions across this a very large border so I think it's a great chance for you to learn more about naval invasions how to respond to them and certain strategies that you can come up with to help yourself in defending against them so the other nice thing if we just go into the national focus tree it is fairly expansive this changed with the waking the tiger dlc and again it does offer a few different routes that you can go down so you can go unite the front create a faction basically with all the warlords or if you really want to experience some simple combat and not worry about the Japanese you can also just go down with subjugate the warlords that basically provides you with the opportunity to experience some small-scale combat now if you don't finish those war goals off obviously the Japanese are going to attack you and that's a bit of a problem if you're in the middle of a war with a warlord the second part of that though is it also teaches you timeliness in this game your time is what really matters you have to nail down transitioning from one war to the next changing production managing your research upgrading your troops and it also teaches you about decisions in this game the Chinese have the army reform decisions so it's also a great way for you to experience a little bit more with the command power and army experience and it teaches you a lot of the game but just on a smaller scale because you're only fighting the Japanese so I think it just makes a great second pick for the fifth place position so anyways let's head on to number four so number four on our list here is going to be Italy now the reason why I've picked this country is again because their national focus tree well it hasn't changed since the game came out it is fairly decent it does offer you a few different options where you can attack some smaller countries and get more experienced with the combat system itself you also from the very GetGo have a war down over here in Ethiopia and if you fail this war it's a great indicator that you need to work on your combat a little bit more so the other reason why I've picked Italy is because they have a decently sized Navy it's one of the larger ones in the game but the other great thing is they're going to be a part of the German Reich axis so because of that you don't really have to worry as much about succeeding in combat because the Germans are really going to do a lot of the heavy lifting so it gives you more time to you focus on defending your coastline working through the research branch and really just trying out different strategies maybe you want to work on your templates without worrying about you know having your entire country overrun and it just offers a lot of replayability without a ton of risk involved with it the other cool thing is you can go down here into the Balkans and you can take on a lot of these countries again if you want some smaller scale combat so it's another great way for you to learn things without taking on a lot of risk and the cool thing is you also get to be a part of the attack on France so that's always kind of nice I don't think I need to go really more in-depth than that I think Italy is a good country to pick especially in this fourth place the other cool thing is if you really want to you can reform the Roman Empire so that's always pretty cool anyways I think that's all for now let's get into the third place position already so coming in at number three on our list we have the United Kingdom so I've picked this country for the number third spot because it's a slightly better country than say France only because they have more resources they have a larger Navy they have a bigger economy more manpower so essentially it's just an upscaled france and i think the nice thing about the UK is because you're an island nation you have to learn how to manage your fleets so it's a great opportunity to try out naval combat different research branches as well they offer a massive national focused tree so you have a lot of different routes that you can take you can experiment with just about anything that you would want in the game you can work on unifying your territories you can go for a fascist route or a communist one or you can stick with the Allies which is always a great chance to really work again on your defense and strategies for actually moving towards offense and taking on the Germans and Italians you can also experiment with air forces a lot and more specifically when I say that you can actually practice with your bombers learn how they operate as well as working on your production as well because the biggest thing is the UK has to do a lot of the heavy lifting until the United States comes into the war and if you haven't prepared properly it can make it very difficult to actually finish the game and defeat these two countries so I've picked it because again it just offers a lot of playability all different kinds of branches that you can take but the other nice thing is because you're an island nation it makes it a lot easier to defend your territory you don't need a ton of troops guarding your coastline and in the event someone makes a landing all you would need to do is essentially put your fleet out into these channels and cut off all of the convoys resupplying those troops that have landed and then you just need to crush the enemies that have landed so I think that's a great chance to stay safe but also remain close to a lot of the combat that's gonna happen in the game and you can dip your toes into a lot of what's happening so that's why it's my number three pick I think it's just a great country to play and it's just pretty fun I mean you can again go down all sorts of branches in the game and really experiment with just about anything that you would like so that's gonna be my number three pick now on to the second place position already guys so coming in at number two we have the United States as well this is gonna be tied with the Soviet Union so the reason I picked the United States and the Soviet Union firstly I'll talk about the United States it's because again it's a country that is cut off from any access to your enemies so what I mean by that is the United States typically is gonna have a war with Japan they're gonna be going after the Philippines and all these island nations so again it's a great opportunity to learn more about naval combat and practice with your naval landings and just preparing that way so it's the first reason why I've picked this country you're very safe you really don't even need to actually guard your borders typically when I play a United States and single-player you don't even have to put any divisions on your borders so you can focus entirely on just attacking other countries and naval invasions and all that kind of stuff and the other cool thing is if they made a landing because your country is so large basically by the time they got halfway across your country assuming they landed on the Californian side you would still be able to recruit a bunch of divisions deploy them make a line and then push back so it's a very easy country to defend again your national focus branches are very expensive you can take this country three different ways you can go Democratic as is you can go a fascist route or a communist route and each one of them has its pros and cons and overall offers more replayability to the game so I think it's just a great country to practice with and play because you can learn a lot of the mechanics in the game without taking on risk so there's really just no drawbacks to play in the United States as well it's much like the United Kingdom where you're protected but your industry is massive by the time you get rid of the Great Depression you can have upwards of 200 SIVs and by the time it's 1941 if you've played the country right you can have around 400 factories three to four hundred roughly so you're just a machine in this game you can out produce basically every single country exclusive to maybe the Germans if they take over all of Europe but even then it's a very fun country to play and that's why I picked it okay and so tied for the second place position here as I previously mentioned is going to be the Soviet Union now the reason why I picked this country again is because they don't really have the largest naval borders you really only have this region in here at the Black Sea you have up here by Leningrad that you need to defend but otherwise there's really not a whole lot and for the most part if the Germans are already in a war with the Allies they're not gonna be utilizing their navy against yours and they'll rarely if ever make a naval landing and so because of that the nice thing is you just have to really focus on preparing for a war with Germany and that means building up your land army having a strong Air Force and really just familiarizing yourself with a lot of the systems because oops around country if we just open up the Soviet Union's national focus tree here we can see that it's actually quite small so there really isn't a whole lot of replayability I will admit that you only have two choices when it comes to the game really you can just stay as the Soviets and put Trotsky in power or take Stalin and then you could pick advisors to change the country that you're playing but overall the best bet is just to go with the Soviet Union especially for new players the other cool thing is you could go to war with some of the Asian countries later on if you wanted to or focus maybe down in the Middle East but for the most part I think this is a great country because you get to experience a lot of combat by 1941 and it gives you a ton of time to prepare for that war so you can also do some small-scale invasions specifically with these countries over here you can also go after Finland and then you can declare war on Romania or just ask for the territory that they took or at least that you want from them so that basically explains why I've picked this country there's really not a whole lot else to explain and I guess well we're just on this topic even if you're losing against the Germans in your first couple players don't really worry about that too much I think that the best thing to do is just try and learn from how the AI is playing and where you're actually losing your battles so for example if you really struggle in this region over here maybe you want to focus your next game on having more units up in the north in the middle of your country and less down in the south which is what I typically do you don't have to do it that way but I don't usually put that many in the south specifically because the Romanians are the ones that are gonna be pushing through here and they don't typically have as many units as the Germans even if the Germans send units over here they have a large region they have to go across and then push up towards Moscow so if you hold that Center and actually push back and just let them work their way out in the south it's not that bad the other cool thing is you have a lot of rivers so there's a ton of opportunities to set fallback lines and basically just give up some territory in exchange for a better defensive position so that is my second pick for the second place position now we're going to get into the first place country right now already so you probably guessed where this was going coming in at number one is going to be the German right now the reason why I've picked this country over all others to be a hundred percent honest I think that you could switch the top three picks that I had so the USA Soviet Union and Germany they can all be exchanged for the number one position because at the end of the day they all play a major role in the game now the reason why I picked the Germans over all the other ones is because predominantly you're gonna be in land combat so you have Poland you have France you have the Soviet Union you have countries down here if you want to attack them you have Denmark you can do naval invasions against the UK Norway Sweden you have a pretty dominant economy early on in the game you have research bonuses that are gonna allow you to get the best equipment before any other countries excluding maybe the Soviets and the USA depending on how they play you can also be involved with volunteering in the Spanish Civil War you can help your allies with just about anything that you want to accomplish in this game and for that reason I think the Germans are the best pick for a new player well it certainly adds a lot of complexity especially if you're new to the game and you know you really haven't dived into the mechanics of how everything works I think this is the best country to pick hands down because of the large number of combat or large number of Wars I should say that you're gonna be involved in and also the fact that you know what honestly the AI in an in and of itself really isn't too difficult to defeat so once you have a decent strategy worked out you can build off of that very quickly and learn how to play the game at a faster rate if we compare that to the UK for example or the Soviet Union the Soviet Union has to wait until almost 1941 to actually be in combat excluding some of these smaller scale invasions whereas the Germans by 1939 even 1938 they're already gonna be in a war with the majors once they declare on Poland so because of that you get to experience combat sooner and you don't have to spend as much time waiting around in the game the other great thing is again just like a lot of these other countries the national focus tree is pretty well fleshed out you have multiple different routes that you can go down can oppose Hitler and actually experience a civil war that's always really fun as well I think the Germans because of how they're actually built in the game the civil war is actually pretty fun so basically you're gonna fight for half of this country and it's really fun I actually enjoy it I don't really go that route often but when I do it's probably one of the best parts about going that alternate route so because of that Germany is my number one pick it's also just from personal experience I've played this country probably the most out of any in the game again just because of how much combat occurs in Europe and you're in the center of it but that's not to say that any of these countries are definitively the number one pick because at the end of the day this whole game is about practice trying out new things learning from your mistakes and really just having fun you know it's alternate history mixed in with regular history and who doesn't love that you can have the Germans who suddenly become democratic and curb stomp the Soviets and then you know on the other hand you have France or someone like the UK where you can go down and try and restore your empires of old so it's really just about trying things out and learning what is gonna be the best for you so as always if you enjoyed this video or if there's anything I can prove upon for the next one just leave a comment down below or join our discord channel you can leave a comment on there and I'll try and always respond to as soon as possible we also set up multiplayer games pretty frequently amongst community members so if that's something you're interested in and you're just looking for a community where you can learn more just use the link down below and you'll be welcomed as soon as you join anyways I'm gonna be signing off for now I hope you guys enjoyed the video I'll see you next time

Channel: ScumpyDawg

Views: 14,724

Rating: 4.9257731 out of 5

Keywords: Hoi4 top 5, hoi4 best country, hoi4 beginner guide, new players, gaming, hoi4 germany, hoi4 france, hoi4 uk, hoi4 usa, hoi4 ussr, hoi4 gameplay, hoi4 tips, hearts of iron iv, hearts of iron 4, hoi4 best countries, scumpydog, steam, paradox interactive, gameplay, hoi4 strategy

Id: ooTBV71X-RI

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020