New DLC changes EVERYTHING about Doctrines! – No Compromise No Surrender Dev Diary
Hello there, Bitter Steel jump scares. So, first dev diary of the new DLC. Let’s dive right in. It’s a good one. And the first thing we’re going to talk about is the biggest change to Hearts of Iron since no step back when they reworked supply. This time they’re reworking doctrines. Doctrines drive the war. They give us the bonuses that we need to crush our enemies. And they’re changing it completely. Now, this is the doctrine screen we all know and love. are four different options for land. We’ve got our naval, air, and special forces. Special forces only if you have, I believe, arms against tyranny. But yeah, the big ones are here. And this is just how it goes. You pick a path and then you’re locked in. You spend experience as you further progress down the tree. You have some choices to make that are honestly not really choices at all because somebody has done the math and one of these is optimal. That’s how it is. and most likely will still be how most of it goes, but the changes are big. Let me show you. This is the new doctrine screen, and you’ll notice it’s empty. It’s been entirely overhauled. Like, at the start of the game, you choose what is called your grand doctrine. This is based on the names and and some of the characteristics of the OG doctrines. You spend your first batch of army experience there to choose the overall direction you want your army and your nation to take. Some nations are going to start with something selected. Others who don’t have a clear historical link will have to choose their first one. It’s going to be a big investment if the cost here is to be believed 100 army experience. This is all a work in progress, so nothing’s final yet, but that is pretty huge for a minor. Uh, but if you start with one already unlocked, it better be a good one because if you’re going to be changing, that’s going to cost you, but it does offer potential because this is not just a visual change. We now have to pick subdocctrines. These are um branches specifically for infantry, artillery and combat support, armor, and I believe something like um your staff or or your your overall organizational structure. Basically, what that does is add several different branches and then you level up those separate branches to give you bonuses. Uh those bonuses are going to depend on both your top line, what your grand doctrine is. It unlocks various different little paths that are available in one branch but possibly not available in in in another uh overarching one. Every time you want to start one of those category tracks as they call them, you have to make a choice. In this case, for instance, the infantry here. Uh what do we want for our infantry? And then there is another selection of of different options to make going from great war infantry stuck in trenches shooting at each other or the ubiquitous mobile infantry. I don’t know what the stats of all these things are going to be. Uh they’re working on all of that, but that does tell me that there will be a lot more options and hopefully more different viable options. So not everything is boiled down into a clearly defined this is the meta and if you deviate from this you’re playing suboptimally. So assigning these is going to cost as you can see army experience. These numbers are not final but still 100 is a lot. But on the bright side it is apparently fully moddable. So we’ll we’ll see great things from some of our favorite mods I expect. Now you can also see this line here. It’s It’s supposed to level up 10, 20, 30, yada yada yada. Here’s a new currency for you, a new type of experience called mastery. This is you can consider it like army experience, but for this specific path in this uh instance for mobile infantry, we’re working on the infantry branch. You get mastery by using infantry and motorized in mech. And depending on how many of those units are in combat or what specific focuses you’re doing because focuses might also give you that, maybe some advisers will. I don’t really know yet. But what is definite is that using those divisions in combat will give you mastery. And as you get more mastery, you’ll unlock different levels here. And with those levels, we can make more choices. Plus, we can also bank a little bit of mastery in that uh branch just so that if we haven’t really made a choice yet, but we would like to make one down the line, we’re not wasting a bunch of mastery fighting wars already before we’ve clearly defined our overarching goals as far as doctrines are concerned. So, it does give you some some leeway. Yeah, they say here you can get smaller amounts uh through training, using military attaches, and through faction sharing. And because of updates, you might also find some bonuses in focus trees and decision. So, um, stuff that probably used to give you like army XP or unlocked certain doctrines will most likely uh award you mastery or they they might just go back and do focus individually to see what would fit. A man can dream. And by default, each track is associated with a certain set of mastery generating units. Like in this case, infantry. Uh, it gains mastery from infantry and motorized and mech. but it can be overridden per subdocctrine. So, I’m guessing there will be choices you can make to change the way you get your mastery depending on what your plan is. Uh, it’s essentially handled by deployed manpower in combat with diminishing returns above a certain amount. So, bigger is as usual better up to a certain point. So, the more units and manpower you have out there fighting, generating mastery, the faster it’s going to come in, which kind of makes sense. It does put minor nations at a disadvantage again. Uh they say they’ve made some changes to make sure that you don’t get left behind completely, but yeah, I I do like playing minors and this is going to not make it super easy. But yeah, major powers are major powers for a reason. And you can reserve it or bank it up here if you have uh changes to make or uh if if you’ve got a tree fully filled out already, you can save it up if you want to change it out potentially. Now, as you see here, uh there are different steps along the path to the end. Um the end is called a milestone where you’ve completed the track and that will upgrade or modify your grand doctrine, like the overarching doctrine. In this case, the screenshot says grand battle plan. If you fill out one of the paths entirely, it modifies your grand battle plan, but there are steps along the way that will also give you additional stats, additional bonuses. The way the focus tree works now, as you work your way down, you unlock different things. This is really no different, only now you’re spending mastery instead of spending army experience. Well, not not so much spending it. You’re you’re simply gaining it and it gets spent for you. And then whenever you reach one of those milestones, there are a couple of choices to make. And then along the way, you also get a couple of bonuses to improve your army as the army masters combat in the chosen way you’ve gone about it. So in this case, they say uh for mobile warfare, they they’ve associated with planning speed and some of those improvements are going to be nestled in the milestone upgrades. But if you, for instance, fill that entire thing, you get all the bonuses. If you then decide, I don’t like mobile infantry and I want to switch it out, you’re going to lose all the bonuses you’ve built up and you’re going to start from zero or from whatever your uh stored amount of mastery was. So, choices can be made, decisions can be reversed, and you can change course if you want to, but it will cost you. And late game, it might just be too much to be worth the trouble. And this is what one of those unlocked milestones might look like. For instance, superior firepower. Uh if you get the milestone, it gives you an extra brigade size. So you can add another row uh in your designer, more uh plan preparation decay rate, meaning um when you you start your attacks, the preparation the planning bonus drops less quickly. Uh freight tactics, more or support companies. So this is basically just what you would get from clicking doctrines only. This is um generated by your actions in the game and less by choices you have to make by spending army experience more or less. We’ll have to see how this plays out, but I like the fact that they’re willing to play around with this and just completely toss something out to start over. It means they they do want to give us options. They could. They didn’t have to do this. I like what I see so far. Of course, we’ll have to experience it to be sure. This could be ASP. I don’t think it will be. Of course, they’re also changing the officer core window. Um, the smallest one here is that the the icon of your chosen doctrine will change slightly as you get more of those um those capstones. They get more reward levels in your tracks and you’ll get small event tics whenever you reach a new level in a doctrine. That’s all right. Cool. It’s not something I’m going to be checking all the time. Uh but they’re also tying army spirits to doctrines, but in a different way that it works now. So, some of them are going to be tied to completing certain subdocctrines. So, going along those paths will unlock certain army spirits. Others might be available from game start. They’re probably going to be the worst ones if that is the case. And others are going to be complete are going to be based on completing a a track, a subdocctrum track. But once you’re unlocked, you get to keep him even if you then change, making it actually worth having uh maybe rush down a certain army spirit and then switch over if it’s just that good. We’ll have to see. I don’t think we’re going to be doing that, but it’s nice that you don’t lose the entirety of the thing when you switch over. The way this is written makes me think they’ll use these more as an army, air, and navy XP sync. Uh, a way for you to spend those currencies because you’re going to have a lot fewer ways to spend them now that they’ve changed doctrines in the way that they have. So, I want to get my hands on this and just see how impactful these changes are. But I am hopeful. This is all very early days, but I sort of like what I see here. This is going to give me way more options to choose from. So, infantry, artillery, armor, and operations. Way more options to choose from. Pick and choose what fits your play style best, but I’m certain somebody with a spreadsheet is going to figure out what is mathematically best as well. It’s just going to take a little longer than before. I like this. Anyway, that’s it for this first dev diary. I’m excited. Let me know what you think down below in the comments. And if you’re interested in picking up this DLC or the season pass, check out my link below. Use code bitter steel. It will get you a Steam key from Paradox store directly. Same pricing, same deals, same sales. The only difference is I get 12% of the price. So Paradox wins, they get a sale, you win. You get the game, I win, I get a little kickback. And the only loser would probably be the tax man because I can ex No, no, no. He wins too cuz I have to pay taxes. Everybody wins. Anyway, I’ll see you in the next one. Goodbye.
NEW DLC ALERT: https://paradoxinteractive.i38e.net/AWLjWD
Dev Diary: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/developer-diary-doctrines.1860507/
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4tWW-toq9KKo-HL3S8D23A/join
BUY Heart of Iron: paradoxinteractive.i38e.net/AWLjWD
If you enjoy disaster save games and want to submit your own, do so here:
https://disastersavior.com
Want to buy some DLC or games and support the channel? www.nexus.gg/bitt3rsteel
❤❤ ☑ Viewed? ☐ Liked? ☐ Subscribed?
I upload new video’s frequently, so subscribe for more regular content!
Twitter: @Bitt3rSteel
Outro Music: Wild Pogo
I do not own any of the games, all rights are reserved by their respective companies. Paradox games: Copyright © 2016-2025 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxplaza.com
#HOI4 #HeartsofIron4 #WW2 #DisasterSave #StrategyGames #ParadoxInteractive #HOI4Challenge