Hearts of Iron IV #HO

Design Intent

The Spanish Civil War is perhaps the single most important event occurring in the game’s build-up phase, but it is often over in the blink of an eye. In addition, aside from the likes of perhaps Turkey and Brazil, Spain is also strategically one of the most fun nations to play, as you have a decent powerbase from which to expand, after the aforementioned civil war.

In fact, the Spanish Civil War was such an important historical event that we have accorded Spain with special attention and, in what is our biggest Focus Tree project to date, made not one, but two full-sized Spanish Focus Trees; one for each side in the civil war - to fully encapsulate the sheer complexity and, dare I say, chaotic madness of the period. This allows us to much better take into account all the different possible political outlooks for a Spanish nation, depending on who wins the Civil War. While these trees are entirely new in the sense that Spain did not yet have a focus tree, they are also a rework in the sense that the civil war was previously already represented in the game. However, this representation suffered from various issues:

• The civil war suffered from normal gameplay causing it to be over far too quickly.
• The civil war was overly simplified to deal with constraints placed upon it by core game mechanics.
• The start of the civil was fully random and the player had no way of knowing when it was likely to appear, nor did they have any way to control this.

To delve a bit further into the first point, an experienced player might be able to finish the civil war within just a couple of months, and even the less-experienced players would almost never come even close to the historical duration of nearly 3 years. This caused problems with other focus trees, as various nations that have focuses to intervene in the civil war (such as France) could find themselves into a situation where they were unable to use these. If a nation had just selected a focus before the civil war started, it could take a total of 140 days to finish the focus that was started and then finish the Intervention focus as well. Add to this Volunteer travel time, and it was fully possible for the civil war to have already ended before volunteers even arrived. Adding cancellable focuses later reduced this, but still did not eliminate the problem.

The purpose of the design for the new Spanish trees was thus four-fold:

• Lengthen the duration of the civil war using artificial means, to allow this period to be better represented in the focus tree, and allow other nations time to intervene.
• Use dedicated time to truly flesh out the rich flavor and history during this period and do some of the weirder stories from the civil war justice.
• Increase player control over and predictability of the start of the civil war.
• Give Spain new build-up and goals to achieve after the conclusion of the civil war, involving it into the larger world conflict in due time.

That being said, let’s delve into it:

Nationalist Spain Starting Situation

Spain in 1936 is a nation at the precipice. In the century preceding the game’s start date the country only experienced brief periods of relative peace, interspersed with long periods of extreme political instability and violent upheaval. In 1830, in a surprising deviation from Salic law, the ageing king Ferdinand VII named as successor not his brother Infante Carlos, but instead his daughter Isabella II. For the next four decades, supporters of Infante Carlos, called Carlists, would start multiple civil wars in an attempt to reinstate the (in their view) rightful line of succession and annul this Pragmatic Sanction. Though victorious, Isabella II, herself, would be ousted in a Republican rebellion in 1868, after which the First Spanish Republic was declared. This, itself, only lasted 6 years before the return to monarchy, though Isabella had abdicated by this point. Next, almost at the turn of the century, 1898 saw the disastrous Spanish-American war in which Spain’s navy was crippled and much of its remaining colonial influence dismantled, leaving it with only its few African colonies. The national shock that this caused eventually resulted in the “Reformation”, culminating in a coup and the creation of a dictatorship under Miguel Primo de Rivera. This, in turn, more or less dissolved peacefully in 1930, when it was replaced by the Second Republic. Another coup attempt by a disloyal military in 1932 and a violent revolutionary Miners’ Strike in 1934, in the beating down of which Franco played a key role, complete this abridged list of Spanish disasters.

In the game, the situation is represented by various national spirits, representing the various challenges the government is faced with:

• Carlism; though their uprisings were repeatedly beaten down over the course of the 19th century, Carlist sentiment is still very much alive and kicking, and their Requetés continue to train in preparation for the inevitable uprising… This Spirit steadily ticks down stability, increases ticking Unaligned support slightly, and reduces attack and defense values for divisions, representing Carlist elements within the military not following orders.
• Military Disloyalty; ever since the failed 1932 Sanjurjada uprising, the military has been plotting… The government is aware of this to some degree, and interfering too directly with army matters may well spark another uprising. The trick is to prepare while avoiding kicking the proverbial hornets’ nest… This Spirit locks all division templates, preventing changes from being made to them, new units being produced from them, or existing units being deleted.
• Political Violence; Spanish society has been, and continues to be, marred by political violence. This is only increasing in severity as 1936 progresses. This Spirit reduces stability.
• National Strikes; the political Left is increasingly organizing national strikes to pressure the government into accepting communist or anarchist reforms, while also doing their best at opposing the rise of fascism domestically. This Spirit reduces stability, construction speed, and factory and dockyard outputs.

In addition, various states (Galicia, Basque Country, and Catalonia) begin the game with a “Statute of Autonomy”, reducing maximum buildable factories, recruitable population, available resources, and construction speed in that state. Various focuses in the tree remove this.

Early on in the design phase it was decided that there should be no way to avoid the civil war. It would cause far too many edge-cases that would have to be solved, it makes no historical sense (Spain’s political landscape was already far too divided and polarized at the time of HoI4’s start date), and the civil war is quite frankly far too important for the early-game in HoI4. Accordingly, as you load up the focus tree in the game you are presented with only a single choice: do I go with the Nationalists or the Republicans?

Your choice has no impact on the results of the February 15 1936 elections (as even historically, despite vastly superior resources and a much greater election campaign compared to the Popular Front, the CEDA (alliance of right-wing parties) still lost the election) but it does decide who you will play as henceforth. This dev diary focuses specifically on the new focus tree for the Nationalists, and so we will look at things from their perspective.

Historically, in the period directly after the electoral victory of the Popular Front, political violence began to escalate while disloyal elements of the military, many of whom had been participants of the 1932 failed Sanjurjada uprising and had since lived in exile in Portugal, began to plot yet another coup attempt. The failure of this coup is what subsequently resulted in the civil war. In the new Nationalist tree this is represented by a number of decisions and missions that become available upon conclusion of the elections.

The first of these is a ticking counter, lasting a base of 250 days, and triggering the civil war when it times out. (1. In the picture)

A second is a series of missions that represent the ‘focuses’ the other side (in this case the Republicans) are taking in their own preparation for the civil war. This allows the player to keep track of what is happening. (2. In the picture)

Thirdly, a set of decisions become available tying into the whole atmosphere of political violence, allowing the player to speed up the start of the civil war (represented by reducing the number of days remaining on the civil war start timer mission), while, conversely, the ‘other side’ generates periodic missions that instead delay the start of the civil war, attempting to buy themselves more time before it begins. (3. In the picture)

And finally, repeatable on-map decisions appear on all Spanish core states, allowing you to expand influence in garrisons or even outright claim them to be added to your side upon the start of the civil war, if your influence is high enough. (4. In the picture)

As the above decision system currently functions (subject to change), the very earliest it is possible to start the civil war is in early August, and, assuming the player does nothing, the very latest is in early 1937, which gives the Republicans the time they need to complete every one of their possible preparations.

The Nationalist focus tree, after the initial choice, continues with a single path of 6 focuses (two of which are mutually-exclusive). Each of these lasts for only 35 days, resulting in full completion of this initial branch by July 29th, and giving bonuses such as large lump sums of political power, spawning extra Carlist and Army of Africa divisions at the start of the civil war, setting garrison support in 7 states in the north of the country to ‘full’ (those historically seized by the Nationalists at the civil war’s start), and, eventually, choosing whether to include “Miss Canary Islands 1936” Francisco Franco (so named by the other plotting officers due to his indecisiveness on joining the rebellion) in the plans of the coup. Soon after the July 29th date, an event fires informing the player that the planning for the coup is now complete, and resources (read: political power gain) have to be spent on remaining hidden until the political instability in the country is ripe to sufficiently support a coup and ensure another failure like in 1932 does not happen. In addition to the ever-increasing Republican counter-preparations, which take a lot longer to get into full swing, this means that the optimal time to kick off the civil war as the Nationalists would be as soon as possible, in early August, as this is when they are at their strongest relative to the Republicans. Once started, the Nationalist side will be led by a Military Junta, of which the leadership remains to be asserted by any of the major parties...

The civil war triggers when the timer runs out, and rather than being represented simply by two civil war factions, we now use two separate tags, for reasons that will become clear later on in this dev diary. All states that fell under Total garrison control for the Nationalists will join that side, while all others will remain with the Republicans. However, states that have some level of Nationalist garrison control in between Total and None will spawn Nationalist divisions within them, depending on the level of control they had (there are four levels of control in total). This serves to greatly increase the chaotic start of the civil war, and for 7 days (preliminary duration) after the civil war the Nationalists receive a spirit “Planned Uprising”, greatly increasing their maximum days without supplies, allowing them to make the most of this time to achieve a ‘land grab’. After this, just as historically, the ‘frontlines solidify’. A terrain modifier is placed all over Spain greatly increasing defense, reducing movement speed, and reducing planning (these effects may change depending on testing). The idea is that this will greatly slow down the civil war, while also illustrating the historical nature of the civil war as “a bunch of soldiers sitting on hilltops staring angrily at each other”, with only the occasional well-planned and -prepared offensive, owing largely to the difficulty of sending equipment to the frontlines both sides experienced. A set of on-map decisions allows for the planning of offensives, which remove the modifier from an entire state, allowing for much faster-paced action here. Both sides are able to use these decisions.

The tree then opens up into a trio of choices representing the nature of the Nationalist uprising at the time. Broadly speaking, there were three different groups that banded together against the government: the Falange, the Carlists, and the military officers who had been disloyal ever since before the 1932 coup attempt.

Falange (Fascist) Branch

The Falange was a relatively new political movement, founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of old dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, who ruled Spain between 1923 and 1930. José Antonio Primo de Rivera’s intent was a political movement that would oppose ‘both the Left and the Right’, and would organize the nation into a national syndicalist state as a third alternative to Capitalism and Communism. Many of the plotting military leadership had loyalties or sympathies towards the movement, but its rise was also the direct cause for the creation of the anti-fascist Popular Front that would win the 1936 elections. Primo de Rivera himself, leader and founder of the party, was arrested after the election for inflammatory speeches he made in the aftermath of the election and during the build-up to the civil war.

The Falange tree gives some opportunities for early infrastructure and military industry construction (uniquely even during the civil war), as well as the ability to have Fifth Columnists rise up in hostile territory to attack the enemy in the rear. This term actually stems from the Spanish Civil War itself, and so it felt appropriate to represent it in the focus tree. In addition, the Falange can request support from the Italians and Germans (provided these are also Fascist). The more important early orders of business are, however, ensuring the safe return of Primo de Rivera by means of a prisoner exchange, lest the Falange’s leader is executed by the Republican government. Before he may assume leadership, however, a temporary military government called The Directorate will be established, as planned by Emilio Mola, the Grand Architect of the uprising.

The final major hurdle during the civil war comes in the form of the Carlists, whose views are not necessarily compatible with those of the Falange. Upon selecting the Falangist path, a timer mission kicks off, counting down until the inevitable Carlist uprising-within-the-uprising, as the Carlists become increasingly aware of being sidelined in the Nationalist decision-making process and will not accept this. This uprising may be sped up by taking the focus Eliminate the Carlists, which will instantly start the uprising but also provides a temporary combat bonus against them, aiding in hopefully rooting them out quickly. The “uprising-within-the-uprising” will spawn a third Spanish tag (as both the Nationalists and the Republicans are already handled by different tags in the new system), which will gain territory in the north, mostly centered around Navarra (if this is controlled), and load its own Carlist focus tree which it may continue if it happens to win the war.

Once the civil war is won, the time comes to replace the temporary Directorate with a new National-Syndicalist State under the leadership of Primo de Rivera. From this point on the tree takes inspiration from the Falange’s “27 Points” manifesto. Examples are the syndicalization of industry and labor, the elimination of regional autonomies, mandatory pre-military training and service, the recreation of a powerful navy to empower the Spanish “will to Empire”, a “Spanish Destiny”, and, ultimately, the re-taking of old Spanish colonies, returning the nation to a status of World Power.

A final branch deals with industrial build-up, which, uniquely for Spain, takes place after the first war it has taken part in. To take this into consideration and allow Spain to ‘catch up’ a little, despite the years of early warfare, this ‘rebuilding’ branch is a little more powerful than that of other minor powers. The old Recovering From Civil War spirit has been expanded into a multi-level spirit with different levels of ‘penalties’, which must be removed through various focuses in this branch. These are tied in with either receiving economic aid from the Axis or the Allies, or attempting Autarky. For the Falange, joining the Allies is out of the question, and so the choice boils down to Axis or Autarky. In addition, however, a new “National Recovery” spirit is added that can end up giving significant bonuses to help a Spanish player get their economy and army in shape for the Next Conflict.

Carlist (Unaligned) Branch

The Carlists provide a more unique approach to HoI. As mentioned previously, Carlist sentiment was still very strong in Spain - especially in the North. They played an integral part in securing the area in the opening phase of the coup, owing largely to their main combat unit, the Requetés, which though relatively few in number were also relatively well-trained. Historically participation of the Carlists was negotiated by Mola in the build-up towards the civil war, but the Carlists themselves had already preparing for an uprising of their own for quite some time, in which the military was assumed to only play an ancillary role. After the start of the civil war, their leader, Manuel Fal Conde, realized the Carlists were increasingly being isolated from the Nationalist decision-making process, causing disgruntlement and enmity directed at the Falange.

This branch is unique on the Nationalist side in that, as the Carlists did not really have any international allies, it does not allow the player to request aid from abroad. The initial stages instead focus on securing the country’s North, as this was the historical power-base for the Carlist movement. At the same time, preparations must be made for the inevitable uprising-within-the-uprising against the Falange. Upon embarking upon this path, just as with the Falangist path, a timer mission appears, which, when reaching 0, will represent the Falangists ‘cracking down’ on the Carlists (much like what the actual focus in the Falangist path allows you to do). Various focuses allow you to prepare for this, however, by obtaining support of additional states or generals, as well as allowing you (much again like the Falangist version) to initiate the uprising yourself, providing you some temporary combat bonuses (this would be the focus that the Carlist Uprising mission for the Falange represents). Just like in the other branch, the Falangists are represented by a third unique tag on the map, at war with both the Carlists and the Republicans, and they load their own version of the Nationalist (Falangist) focus tree, which they may continue should they win the civil war.

Beyond this, the branch focuses on increasing the fanaticism of the Requetés, which historically considered the civil war as a form of ‘crusade’ against liberalism, democracy, and republicanism, and in defense of Christian values. Their faith in God and devotion to their King were paramount, and they even had priests accompany them on the battlefield to administer Last Rites while under fire. This branch, starting from The Crusade Against Democracy until Cultivate Fanaticism, allows to ‘super-power’ your divisions, which you will need because of the lacking industrial focuses and international allies in this tree.

Next is the question of who should inherit the Carlist claim, as the actual Carlist heir of the time, Alfonso Carlos, died heirless in 1936. His appointed successor was Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, but as this was not technically the same dynasty it divided Carlist supporters. Some argued they should now support the claim of the old monarch, Alfonso XIII, instead, even if this was the line the Carlists had been fighting with for generations. The decision of who to support is left to the player. Finally, the tree deals with the re-establishment of the Monarchy, as well as the restoration of the old Spanish possessions: France (which may also be peacefully ‘united’ if the player selects Alfonso XIII or his son as Carlist monarch and the French player/AI has also selected the Legitimist monarchy branch, as the claimant for both of these paths is the same!), the Spanish Netherlands, the Iberian Union, Gibraltar, and, last but not least, a great War of Vengeance to avenge the disaster of ‘98 and reclaim the Spanish colonies.

Francoist/Military (Unaligned) Branch

The final branch of the Nationalist focus tree takes the perspective of the third and final major group within the faction: the Military - specifically a Military Junta that has elected to invite Franco’s participation. This is the historical branch for the Nationalists, though it has ample opportunities for ahistorical what-ifs. And as the more historically-literate among you might already have pondered; the Nationalists in fact did not experience an “uprising-within-the-uprising”, as has been represented in the other two branches. And so, this branch is the only one that allows a player to prevent the Falange-Carlist antagonism from escalating into full-blown violence, largely thanks to Franco’s quite frankly expert manipulations, ‘divide and rule’ politics, and appropriation of elements from both sides’ ideologies. To better illustrate this, Francoism is no longer a Fascist faction by default, but instead is Unaligned, with the option of becoming Fascist if the player should elect to side with the Axis.

Just as the other branches, upon embarking on this branch a timer mission appears, counting down for a Carlist uprising (assuming Franco would side along with the majority of the military leaders with the Falange). However, unlike the Falange path, focuses exist to delay this uprising. Historically this involved Franco playing various Carlist regional groups off against one another, subverting Carlist and Falangist authority, conveniently allowing the proposed prisoner exchange for Primo de Rivera to ‘fail’ so that one of Franco’s biggest rivals was executed and yet could be used as a martyr for the cause at the same time, and ultimately banishing the leaders from both parties. Eventually, the player can even outright prevent the uprising from happening altogether, which was done historically with the merger of the Falangist Falange Española de las JONS party and the Carlist Communion party into the… well… Falange Española de las JONS (post-1937), using elements from both sides to form an ideology both groups could (or well, were forced to…) compromise on. However, these focuses depend on being able to make quick gains in the civil war to secure critical areas (Toledo province, the entire North, etc. etc.) that in turn open up the focuses required. As a result, a civil war that goes poorly for Franco may rapidly spiral out of control, as they will be prevented from taking the critical focuses to stop the Carlist uprising.

Additional aid for this task may be obtained from abroad, as the Francoists share the Falangist branch for support from Italy and Germany, share the use of the Requetés with the Carlists, and also have a unique branch obtaining support from the Portuguese. After the civil war, this branch expands into the Iberian Pact, agreeing that both sides will always join the same side in any war or faction they join (enforced via on_action events), and eventually the ability to create their own faction with the addition of (Vichy) France and Italy; a “Latin Bloc”.

After the Alcazar has been saved (or if it never was sieged in the first place), Franco becomes de facto leader of the Nationalists. After this, branches are shared with both the Falangists and Carlists again, illustrating Franco’s appropriation of various parts of these factions’ ideologies to support his own position. The entire industrial rebuilding branch is available to Franco, but he is also able to join the Allies, something the Falangists themselves are not. Doing this allows for the most powerful recovery plan available to the nationalists, essentially speeding up the historical “Spanish Miracle” by implementing its policies up to 15 years earlier. Of course, this comes at the cost of selling your soul to the Allies.

Finally, the player may adopt Franco’s “26 Points” manifesto (identical to the Falangist’s “27 Points” manifesto, with simply the convenient exclusion of the singular point prohibiting the merger of political parties… No, you can’t make this stuff up… ), after which they may decide to re-establish the monarchy with Alfonso XIII (or, if he has died already, his heir) or maintain Franco as Dictator for Life (historical). After this, sending volunteers to Germany in their fight against the Soviet Union and ‘occupying’ the Tangiers enclave (not represented on the map) lead to focuses to demand North Africa from the weak French, retaking Gibraltar from the British, and finally seizing West Africa (which may not necessarily be owned by the same France as North Africa…)

Post-Civil War Recovery Mechanics

One element all branches will share is a tie-in with the Resistance system, as detailed in previous dev diaries. Historically, Franco struggled with guerilla warfare and resistance remaining spread throughout the Spanish countryside for decades after the civil war. This peaked with the Invasion of Valle de Aran by Republican exiles from the French border in 1944. This is presently still under development, but the idea is that both factions lose cores on the territory they did not start the civil war with, and have to “re-core” this land via decisions in the aftermath of the civil war, symbolizing the systematic rooting-out of Republican resistance.

As this is presently in development I have no pictures to show of this. However, I do have something else to treat you to (which the keen-eyed among you may have already noticed)...

Iberian Map Changes

Everything discussed in this dev diary (map changes excluded) is a part of the paid content of the as-yet-unnanounced DLC, and for those who do not buy it the Civil War will continue to work as it currently does. Map changes will naturally be available to everyone, even those who do not buy the DLC.

That’s all for today! I hope you’ll join me next week as we take a look at the all-new focus tree for the Spanish Republicans. I will leave you all with a small teaser…