Technologies Hearts of Iron IV Guide
Last update: 06 July 2016
This chapter discusses individual technology issues to a larger extent. Names used may differ, if you play as one of the interesting nations. All nations are subject to the same development mechanic. Therefore, problems mentioned here will be useful regardless of which nation you are leading.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following marking has been introduced:
- Names of technologies available since the beginning of the game (on the timeline) have been provided in green
- Names of technologies available since the beginning of the game (on the timeline), which require meeting certain conditions, have been provided in blue
- Names of technologies that become available later into the game have been provided in red
Infantry
Name | Commentary |
Support weapons | Thanks to this technology, you can boost base statistics of the majority of standard land units. The four levels of development provide a considerable bonus to attack and defense value. The bonus value varies, depending on which type of units it concerns. You should take interest in this tab at the moment at which you start to plan your first military actions. |
Night vision systems | After you develop two levels of this technology, you will receive a quite considerable bonus to all nighttime land operations. This is especially useful in the case of deploying your units overseas, because the most difficult thing here is to define when your units will actually arrive in the enemy territory. You gain access to this type of research relatively late into the game and there is little need for you to occupy a research team with issue this situational. First, try to deplete options connected with general statistics, before you take to night vision systems. |
Infantry gear | This technology can help you generate quite a bonus to attack of land units. This goes both for light and heavy units. Research fields are quite scattered across time, which is why it is best to work on individual projects on a regular basis, only when they do not incur ahead of time penalty. |
Marines | There are three stages of research into marines. First, you receive a division template. With the next steps in this technology, you can receive additional bonus to planning, organization and additional attack factor against light units. Development of marines can be put off for later, if only you do not plan on conquering any overseas territories, because battalions of regular infantry will do much better. |
Mountaineers | Just like in the case of the previous technology, you can postpone research until you actually need it. Things are different if the majority of your territory is made up of mountain areas. It should be noted that units of this type are much better in such conditions. Thanks to this technology, you receive a template and bonuses to organization and damage from attack. |
Paratroopers | This technology provides you with a template, a bonus to attack and organization. This type of units also requires cargo planes and domination of airspace, which is why you have to prepare before hand, before you use paratroopers. Conditions to use paratroopers can arise as late as in the middle stage of the game, so you can ignore this field at the beginning of the game. |
Note: Of course, the key technologies in this tab are vehicles and firearms. Research into them will grant you access to a number of boosts that will allow you to pose an actual threat to other powers. Remember that before you start your research, you should realize national goals connected with them, which will allow you to save some time, especially in the case of special forces. You gave to keep in mind that, in the course of the game, not all of the solutions will be useful to you. This is why you have to take decisions basing on your playing style.
When it comes to special forces, it should be noted that they are excellent for their dedicated missions. Thanks to diverse make-up of your army, you can achieve much more and often it is better to use, during attack, units that are much better at navigating mountains or do not lose their endurance during raids.
Support battalions
Name | Commentary |
Engineers | Thanks to engineers, the entire battalion receives entrenchment bonus. This predominantly affects defensive value of the army, so you should dispatch engineers mainly to the squads that either defend their positions, or are stationed near borders of your territory. Over several development levels in this technology, you should receive a bonus to entrenchment of as much as 600%. |
Recon | Thanks to reconnaissance, you can assess numbers of the enemy forces, and decide what kind of forces you need, much faster. Recon should make the kernel of attacking divisions, thanks to which they can perform effective reconnaissance before you move the frontier forward. Of course, in the case of defensive divisions, you can quickly obtain information on how to reorganize your forces to defend your positions effectively. |
Military police | This is yet another type of battalion especially necessary from the viewpoint of attacking armies. Thanks to the presence of military police in the conquered regions, the pacification process is more effective, which prevents social unrest and rebellion. Military police is excellent for enacting marshal regulations and they often allow you to avoid bad news. |
Maintenance | This type of battalion is especially useful for divisions that make use of all types of vehicles. Thanks to maintenance, mechanized battalions receive a bonus to reliability, thanks you can exploit them on a wider scale. The base coefficient of reliability of vehicles can also be modified in the course of production, but thanks to developing these technologies, you will receive a 15% bonus for all the units. |
Field hospital | A battalion that you make up every division. Thanks to field hospitals, you can avoid sustaining losses among your soldiers and, at the same time, save them from losing experience. Each division has a specific number of soldiers. If you sustain losses, the ranks of the army are replenished by reserve soldiers that have not yet received proper training. This leads to a situation, in which, after you make up for losses, experience level of the division drops, and you lose bonuses. |
Logistics | Another battalion that works for every division. Thanks to the appropriate logistic base, you can reduce amount of supplies that are used on the frontline. This means that some of the gear that you would have to use to replenish your army stays in your storage, or you can use it for production of new units. Wear of gear is very important factor, because in the case of an invasion, sometimes you have to wait very long for replenishments. Shortage of supplies leads to loss in the overall strength of the division and its endurance. Arm devoid of its logistic base becomes defenseless after some time and therefore useless. |
Signal | The last support battalion should also be common in each type of division. Thanks to battalion of this type, level of command and organization rises. Thanks to this, orders that you issue are carried out with greater precision and the army sticks to the plan. Often during attacks along a long frontline, you can notice that your army has fallen into disarray. Individual armies take their way around, instead of the route that you commanded them to take, they lose their organization and stop going by the plan. Thanks to using signal battalions, you can avoid this type of situations. |
Note: The faster you develop basic templates for battalions, the more organized and more effective your armies will be in unfavorable conditions. Individual squads are especially useful in connection with specific types of core battalions. Remember that support battalions can only be used with land divisions. If, from at the beginning of the game, you want to introduce any changes in division templates, you should start by introducing, at least, one support battalion. If you do not replenish your armies on a regular basis and ignore producing dedicated gear, it may turn out halfway through the game that replenishments for your army will block up your assembly lines.
It should be noted that you gain access to some of the battalions only after you have developed other technologies in those fields. In spite of that, it is a good idea to focus on development in this respect, because support battalions do not have any real offensive value, but thanks to using their specific properties, you can avoid sustaining damage on the frontline.
Mechanical Engineering
Name | Commentary |
Computers | Thanks to using computers, you can receive a profitable bonus to the rest of the projects. Using this technology to its full potential allows you to reduce research time by 18%. It is a good idea to develop this technology early into the game, thanks to which you save time. |
Encryption | Thanks to encryption you block flow of information between individual countries. Other nations are not capable of defining goals that you head towards and you can often surprise other countries. It is especially useful in multiplayer, but while playing against the AI, it is also a good idea to keep your strategy secret. |
Decryption | This technology is similar to the above one, but its function is different. Thanks to decryption, you can obtain valuable information about other nations, such as the strength of their forces. Just like in the case of the previous one, this is especially useful in multiplayer, but it is always good to know about what other nations are up to. |
Radio | Development of radio communication profits you in a number of ways. Thanks to improved communication between individual regions, it is easier to deliver supplies and general development in this respect improves your ability to identify enemy units and potential threat. It is a good idea to devote some time to developing this area to increase security of the state. It may not be too useful at the beginning of the game, but with growth of global international frictions, it is a good idea to take it into consideration. |
Atomic research | One of the main goals engineering. Thanks to this path, you will be able to use nuclear weapons during your attacks. This is especially useful if you want to conquer a stronger nation. Development of this area requires a lot of time and it is a good idea to reduce it a little bit, through appropriate national goals. Remember that you require a lot of time to start working on nuclear warheads, and you have to build nuclear reactors in your country. |
Rockets | Long-range missiles is another technology that allows you to obliterate the enemy forces quickly. Apart from that, thanks to this technology, you gain access to jet engine projects, which will enrich the arsenal of your planes and takes you to a whole new level of air-raid planning. This is especially important because both the missiles and planes have intercontinental reach. |
Note: In Hearts of Iron IV, engineering focuses on weapons of mass destructions and improvement of communications between individual regions within the country. Thanks to proper employment of decryption, you can obtain secret information and alleviate the effects of enemy actions. You should start development into this field as quickly as possible and reduce time required for research. Remember to start working on nuclear bombs as early as possible, because it takes a lot of time to develop
Industry
Name | Commentary |
Basic machine tools | Use of modern machinery for individual production lines has the key effect on the overall effectiveness of production. Thanks to new technologies, you will be able to produce much more gear within shorter periods of time., as long as you keep the assembly line active for long enough. You should be rather consistent in developing this area and go with the timeline. |
Concentrated industry | One of two available models of organization of industry in the country. The main goal of this one is to increase overall throughput of factories by coordinate activities of several factories in the region. Of course, thanks to this technology, you can receive quite a bonus to production, within an hour. Additionally, this technology allows you to unlock several slots in individual regions, which you can fill in with civilian and military factories. If you want to produce one type of gear en masse, and you will maintain your assembly lines for long enough, you can make quite a good use of the bonus. |
Dispersed industry | The other one of the two models of organization of industry. Just like in the case of the previous one, you can gain additional slots to build factories. However, this technology provides you with several useful modifiers that, although they do not provide you with that high bonuses, they provide you with versatility. Thanks to this, your factories are more resistant to bombardments and the effectiveness of the assembly line does not drop, even in the case of frequent change of product. Also, throughput increases, but not to the level granted by the above technology.. It is a good idea to develop this one, if only you specialize in deploying small divisions that use diverse gear, and also in situation, in which the majority of the remaining nations have highly-developed strategic air fleet. |
Construction | Developing this technology allows you to speed up your building of certain buildings all over the country. The only interesting thing is that you can reduce time that is necessary to rebuild a destroyed factory. It is quite useful, especially in the case that your factories do not have their own modifier of resistance to bombardment. Just like the rest of the industry, you should develop this technology consistently and you should develop its first variants early into the game. |
Excavation | This technology is directly connected with construction. By using the potential of the tree, you can increase self-sufficiency of the country. This technology is especially useful when your country has considerable amounts of natural resources. By limiting exported amounts and increase excavation, you can decrease demand for commercial agreements, which allows you to make use of a larger number of civilian factories to build internal structures and to produce consumer goods. Find out for yourself if the amount of the produced goods is high enough, for just a half of it to satisfy your needs. If not, it is better to put off works on this technology until the end of the game. |
Synthetic oil | This technology is highly useful for countries of low reserves of natural rubber and oil. I is especially profitable for countries with no access to the sea, which cannot obtain resources from internal sources. Basic development of this technology provides you with a certain structure. It takes long time to build it, but it pays off. Even if your territory has a coastline, it is unarguably more profitable to use your own resources. |
Note: All of the technologies in this field should be developed in accordance with timeline, when all of them are available. You especially have to pay attention to industrial variants that allow you to increase the level of production of goods and gear. Remember that you can change your strategy and change to another variant, at the cost of additional time required to introduce that variant. Of course, you cannot ignore issues connected with management of resources, but here everything depends on what kind of resources you actually have, and on whether there is anything to manage. Before you start your construction, it is a good idea to introduce initial variants of the technologies, which reduces time required to erect the first buildings.