In Hearts of Iron 4, players can choose from a wide range of political aides with different skills. These are the most important qualities.
As a simulator of World War II, Hearts of Iron 4 is mostly about the war itself. This includes large-scale offensives, logistics, and naval and air fights. But getting ready for war is just as important. Players must build factories, train troops, make equipment, and run their government.
This last part is very important because players can add different political advisors to their team. Each one brings something different to the re-arming and war activities, so choosing who to put in charge can be a big deal. Here are the best general political advisors in Hearts of Iron 4.
Fortification Engineer
Fortification Engineers are great for people like France who want to play a more defense game. They speed up the building of land forts, coastal forts, and anti-air by 20%, making it easier for players to turn their whole country into an invincible fortress.
The bonus is only worth it if the player wants to build a lot of forts, so while this advisor may be worth it for some, it is too situational and weak compared to other choices.
Ideological Crusader
Ideological Crusaders are one of the less common types of political leaders, but they can still be very strong. They make the monthly opinion of the same ideology go up by 100%. This makes it much easier for countries with the same ideology to become friends and partners. This can help a person build a coalition of countries and try to get other countries to join their side.
The Ideological Crusader also adds 10% to the bonus to stability that comes from the popularity of the ruling party. This means that a powerful political party will help the payer more, which is always nice.
Smooth-Talking Charmer
This political assistant is a diplomatic type who wants to improve the player’s relationships with other countries. They make it cheaper to get along with other countries, which can help convince them to agree to important political requests like military access or loan-lease agreements. It might even stop a neighbor from going to war.
The Smooth-Talking Charmer also increases the trade deal opinion factor by 10%, which helps players get better trade deals. Even so, no amount of charm will bring peace to countries that are at war, and trade will stop quickly. So, this advisor may be helpful for countries that start out with few international ties, but it will become less important as the game goes on.
Armaments Organizer
The Armaments Organizer is a consultant who is usually hired when a war starts. He or she cuts the cost of turning civilian companies into military factories by 20%. This makes it easy for players to get more military companies quickly in case of an emergency and make more equipment. This is especially helpful for the US, which can turn its huge number of civilian companies into war factories when war breaks out.
But it isn’t always necessary for other countries. With some good planning and national priorities, they will have most of the weapons and divisions they need to start the war, so they won’t have to rush to get ready.
War Industrialist
War Industrialists are better at re-arming than the Armaments Organizer. They speed up the building of military factories, navy dockyards, and fuel silos by 10%. If they are chosen early in the game, they should lead to more military factories than just building citizen factories and turning them into military factories.
Even though 10% doesn’t seem like much, it adds up over the course of the game and can make a huge difference for Germany or the US. Not to mention the fact that dockyards and silos can be built faster, which is also very helpful.
Captain Of Industry
The Captain of Industry is an industrial advisor who works with civilian industry. He or she speeds up the building of civilian industries, infrastructure, railroads, and synthetic refineries by 10%. They are better than their military counterparts because the bonus applies to more buildings and it takes longer to build civilian factories than military factories. They are also more useful.
Civilian factories are used to build everything in the game, so building them faster has a snowball effect that boosts the player’s industrial capacity as soon as possible, which leads to more factories being built overall.
Popular Figurehead
In Hearts of Iron 4, stability is an important stat. Having a high stability gives you a number of benefits, such as more political power, fewer consumer goods companies, and more factory output. So, it makes sense that any expert who helps make the country more stable will be a good one.
This is exactly what the Popular Figurehead does. It raises stability by 15%, which helps get those good results and avoid the bad ones that come from low stability. They are a good choice for any country, even though they are not very common.
Ideology Advisors
A group of experts who help players change their nation’s ideas. Players will only want to hire them if they are taking their country down an alternative history path. All three types—Communist Revolutionary, Fascist Demagogue, and Democratic Reformer—increase the support of their party by 0.10 points per day.
Even though this isn’t a huge boost, most countries will still be able to switch beliefs after a year or two with the bonus. This makes these advisors very useful if you start in 1936 and gives most countries new ways to play.
Prince Of Terror
The Prince of Terror advisor is the ultimate tool for repression. It reduces damage to garrisons by 25%, lowers the effectiveness of foreign subversive actions by 30%, and makes non-core manpower 2% stronger.
Many players know that when you take over a lot of land, resistance to capture can become a real problem. Resistance fighters will keep attacking garrison troops, which will use up the player’s tools and manpower. Some of these bad things are cancelled out by the Prince of Terror, who can also bring in 100,000 new soldiers if the player takes over enough land.
Silent Workhorse
Silent Workhorses is a great assistant whose name says it all: it makes political power gain 15% better. This means that after about 500 days, they will pay for themselves. Due to the lack of other bonuses, it may seem like a waste for players to choose a Silent Workhorse as their first adviser. However, the Silent Workhorse is an investment, and a very valuable one.
Over the many in-game years that a Hearts of Iron 4 game could last, this advisor keeps increasing political power. This lets players make more choices, appoint more government advisors, and fully set up their military high command before war breaks out. If Eggy Car players get the chance, they should make sure to choose one.
You can play Hearts of Iron 4 on Windows, macOS, and Linux.