Hearts of Iron IV – How to Organize a War

How to Organize a War (New Player)

All credit goes to Maya-Neko !

1) Research and unit build up

It’s mostly about what types of weapons you’ll use and that’s what you research early on. For small countries that’s mostly infantry weapons and artillery.

Also if you’re just starting out, also consider the order of your political and military advisers, especially the ones which give you attack or defense are helpful for countries which struggle to pump out enough division.

Also try to estimate how big your frontline will be and how bad your supply could get. Less can be more in many cases, especially in the jungle and mountains, where you can get tons of supply problems very fast.

2) Plan your war build up

Many countries which are featured in the country selection have specific focuses to wage war with other countries without the need to justify it. I would be surprised if Peru has something like that, so you’ll mostly take the hit of needing to justify it yourself.

An alternative to that is waiting for the big wars to start and then to join a big faction (preferably one, that has some targets in your area for you to attack). Though obviously you’ll most likely face strong opponent, but your allies will most likely help you as well.

Also this is the time, where you need to start training your units. They should at least be level 2, so that they don’t get the green-debuff, but level 3 is obviously optimal, especially for smaller countries

3) Go to war

Though not immediately when the games allows you to. Make sure, that your units are placed correctly on the right border and that they’re assigned to the right frontlines. Also definitely make sure, that they’re not in training mode and that they’re replenished all their organization and that their planning bonus and fortification is maxed out.

And in general: Make sure that your conscription law is high enough, so that you’ve some manpower in reserve. Same is also important for your equipment.

Take a look into your logistics tab to make sure, that you’ve more weapons than needed, because you’ll for sure loose tons of them in wars. And most importantly, don’t train divisions, if you’ve problems with equiping your already existing division (especially in terms of manpower)