Hearts Of Iron 4 Controls
Controls Hearts of Iron IV Guide. Controls are very simple and you can limit yourself to using only the mouse with optionally pressing spacebar during decisive moments. Despite that, it is a good idea to learn the basic keyboard shortcuts which will make playing more efficient. Control the Seas From the convoy attacks in the Battle of the Atlantic to the fierce carrier battles on the Pacific front, the Second World War saw naval innovation in both tactics and technology. The war at sea takes center stage in Hearts of Iron IV: Man the Guns, a new expansion to Paradox Development Studio’s popular strategy wargame.
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More About Hearts of Iron IV
Hearts of Iron IV is an Action, Strategy, War, Single and Multiplayer video game created by Paradox Development Studio. It is the third part in the series of Hearts of Iron and centered on WWII. The game features various nations and lets the player to choose one of them in either 1936 or 1939 and leads his army to win. There are three major powers such as the Axis, the Comintern, and the Allice. Lead your nation, make strategies, and fight against other nations using weapons and defeat them to win. The game rewards the player with experience points that can use to unlock further content. Protect the units and lead his land, air, and sea armies to take down enemies. Hearts of Iron IV offers core features such as Total Strategic War, Control any Nation, Online Combat, Control Planes, and Tanks, etc. With detailed environment, immersive gameplay, and brilliant mechanics, Hearts of Iron IV is the superb game to play and amuse.
Hotkeys, alternatively known as keyboard shortcuts, allow quick access to specific game functions without using the mouse. There is no way of changing the hotkeys.
- 4Army hotkeys
Top menu hotkeys[edit]
The Flag and 8 gray buttons just underneath the top bar provide direct access to the primary menus for interaction with your country. The hotkeys for these menu buttons are noted below. They follow, from left to right, across the top row of the keyboard.
Hotkey | Q | none | W | E | R | T | Y | U | I |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Opens | Government | Decisions | Research | Diplomacy | Trade | Construction | Production | Army planner | Logistics |
Map hotkeys[edit]
Key | Action | Description |
---|---|---|
Ctrl + number | Assign a province or Strategic Air Region to a number | Left click on a province or Strategic Air Region to select it. Then, while holding down the Ctrl ^Ctrl key, press a number key 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. This process assigns the pressed number as a hotkey for quickly selecting a province or Strategic Air Region. Tip: pressing a number hotkey twice will center the map on your assigned province or Strategic Air Region. |
Map mode interface hotkeys[edit]
The buttons in the bottom right of the map. Each map mode emphasizes one type of information on the map and often changes the tooltips to that end.
Key | Map Mode or Toggle | Description |
---|---|---|
Ctrl + F1 | All Possible Map Modes | All possible map modes window. Clicking the All Possible Map Modes button or press ^CtrlF1 will open the all possible map modes window revealing 11 different map modes (reference the graphic on the right within this chart). Clicking on one of these map modes will change the game map to the selected mode. |
Ctrl + F2 | Configure Map Modes | Configure map modes menu. Configuring map modes with Population selected for the F9 key. To configure the map mode, first click on the button that opens the configure map modes or press ^CtrlF2, then select one of the 6 map modes to be replaced from the configure map mode menu (reference the graphic on the left within this chart). The all possible map modes window will open to the left of the configure map mode menu. Then select one of the 11 map modes as a substitute. The selection should now be shown in the Map Mode Interface (reference the graphic on the right within this chart). Note: the Default button may be clicked to restore the original map modes. |
F | Search (Find) | Click the Search button or press F to launch a menu to find countries, states, and cities. Typing at least 2 consecutive letters of the name will bring up a list of names. This list can be narrowed down by typing additional consecutive letters and will show a flag in front of countries, states as having no symbol, and cities with a colored circle (≥ 20 victory points) or a colored square (< 20 victory points). The color of the circle or square indicates ownership/control as follows: red = enemy, gray = neutral/friendly, green = you own/control. Clicking the name will center the map on the selected country, state, or city. Clicking the Go Home button will center the map on your capitol. |
F1 | Default | Click the Default button or press F1 to see a blend of Political and Terrain map modes making it easier to see country borders as well as the terrain type and controller of each province. This is the mode to pick for land combat as it is useful in following the progression of the war, creating and executing battle plans, and giving orders to armies. |
F2 | Strategic Navy | Click the Strategic Navy map mode button or press F2 to see a map mode that emphasizes the large naval regions and colors them according to where you have naval superiority (green), parity (yellow), or inferiority (red). It also makes naval bases more prominent and displays more detailed information via tooltips when hovering over sea zones where you have ships patrolling. This is one of three modes which display convoy routes (the others being the Supply Areas map mode and Resource map mode). Finally, it adds small 'mission' icons in all sea regions where you have naval units on active missions. |
F3 | Strategic Air | Click the Strategic Air map mode button or press F3 to see a map mode that emphasizes the large air regions and colors them according to where you have air superiority (green), parity (yellow), or inferiority (red). It also makes air bases more prominent and displays more detailed information via tooltips when hovering over an air zone. Finally, it also displays 'mission' icons in each air zone where you have an air wing on a mission. |
F4 | Supply Areas | Click the Supply Areas map mode button or press F4 to see a map mode that displays all supply regions (which are collections of states). The regions become colored based on the quality of your supply in that region. Hovering the cursor over the center of each region will show the supply flow path and provide additional information via tooltips that identify problem areas and bottlenecks. It is the second map mode that displays your convoy routes (the others being Strategic Navy map mode and the Resource map mode). |
F5 | Terrain | Click the Terrain map mode button or press F5 to see a map mode that displays the terrain type as simplified colors. |
F6 | Resistance | Click the Resistance map mode button or press F6 to see a map mode that colors all states based on the current resistance level and changes the tooltip to provide more detailed resistance information. |
F7 | Resource | Click the Resource map mode button or press F7 to see a map mode that displays the location, by state, and quantity of all resources available in the world (including those produced by synthetic factories; even in other countries). It is the third map mode that displays your convoy routes (the others being Strategic Navy map mode and Supply Areas map mode). |
F8 | Infrastructure | Click the Infrastructure map mode button or press F8 to see a map mode that shows the level of infrastructure of each state. |
F9 | Factions | Click the Factions map mode button or press F9 to see a map mode that displays faction names and colors the world nations by their current faction affiliation. |
None | States | Click the States map mode button to color all states based upon their starting category which limits the starting quantity of Construction Slots. The starting color does not change, however, the quantity of building slots can be increased through technology or national focuses. |
None | Diplomacy | Click the Diplomacy map mode button to color each nation in the world based on their opinion of the currently selected nation (select new nations by right clicking on them; make sure no units are currently selected). Tooltips for each nation change to display it's opinion of the currently selected nation. Green = Territory controlled by the currently selected nation. Blue = Part of the same faction as the currently selected nation. Gray = Countries with a 'neutral' opinion of the currently selected nation. Orange = Countries with a very bad opinion of the currently selected nation. Red = Countries at war with the currently selected nation. |
None | Players | Click the Players map mode button to display which country is controlled by which player. |
None | Population | Click the Population map mode button to show the amount of population in each state. |
None | Ideology | Click the Ideology map mode button to color the countries by their ideology. Blue = Democratic. Brown = Fascist. Red = Communist. Gray = Non-Aligned. |
M | Unit Counters | Click the Unit Counters button or press M to toggle the display of All unit counters or just the Player's unit counters on the map. |
, | Counter Colors | Click the Unit Color button or press , to toggle the color of allied counters to be country colors or Friendly/Neutral/Enemy colors. |
. | Allied Battleplans | Click the Allied Battleplans button or press . to toggle the display of allied battleplans on and off. |
N | Day/Night | Click the Day/Night button or press N to toggle the Day/Night map overlay on/off. |
None | Fog of War | Click the Fog of War button to toggle the clouds that obscure terrain on and off. |
None | Radar | Click the Radar button to toggle the Radar range visibility lines on and off. |
Army hotkeys[edit]
Key | Action | Description |
---|---|---|
O | Division Overview | The O key O opens the army Division Overview, also accessible with the button at the top right of the screen. |
Ctrl + number | Assign an Army or Divisions to a number | Left click on an Army to select it or left click while holding Shift ⇧Shift to select multiple Divisions. Then, while holding down the Ctrl ^Ctrl key, press a number key 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. This process assigns the pressed number as a hotkey for quickly selecting an army or combination of Divisions. Tip: pressing a number hotkey twice will center the map on your assigned unit(s). |
Battleplan hotkeys[edit]
These hotkeys are specifically for use when commanding your land units. These keys are only active when you have units from a single army selected and the battleplan interface is visible (see image to the right).
Key | Order | Description |
---|---|---|
K | Exercise | Clicking the Exercise button or pressing the K key K will tell all of the divisions in the command to commence the exercise order. This order cancels any battleplans but not existing movement orders. Exercising troops have very low Organization, so should be kept out of combat. Reference Exercise for more detail. |
None | Naval Invasion | Clicking the Naval Invasion button after selecting your divisions will highlight all potential launch ports as a turquoise diagonal stripe pattern. After clicking on the desired launch port, it will become a highlighted blue diagonal stripe pattern. Then right click on a highlighted green diagonal stripe pattern coastal province that you wish to invade. The highlighted green diagonal stripe pattern coastal province will turn to a highlighted orange diagonal stripe pattern if done correctly. Once the plan is activated, the invasion will begin to prepare and reserve convoys from your country's pool. Reference Naval Invasion for more detail. |
None | Paratroop Order | Clicking the Paratroop Order button, after selecting your paratroop divisions, will highlight all potential 'takeoff point' air bases as a turquoise diagonal stripe pattern (if transport planes are based there) or as a yellow diagonal stripe pattern (if no transport planes are based there). After clicking on the desired 'takeoff point' air base (requires transport planes in that base), it will become a highlighted blue diagonal stripe pattern. Then right click on a highlighted green diagonal stripe pattern land province that you wish to designate as the drop location. The highlighted green diagonal stripe pattern land province will turn to a highlighted orange diagonal stripe pattern if done correctly. Once the plan is activated, the plan will be carried out provided that you have at least 70% air superiority and sufficient transport planes. Reference Paradrop and Air Superiority for more detail. |
Z | Front Line | After going into this mode by clicking the Front Line button or pressing the Z key Z, left click a border with another country to place a front for the selected units along the entire border with that country. Alternatively, you can right click and drag to customize the size of the front line. Note: It is not currently possible to right click and drag a front line across borders with multiple nations unless you are at war. Reference Front Line for more detail. |
X | Offensive Line | Can only be used with an army that has at least one Front Line already created. After activating by clicking the Offensive Line button or pressing the X key X, right click and drag to form the line you want your troops to advance to. While holding down right click, hit Tab ⇆Tab to cycle through the possible 'starting points' for the arrow. This allows you to create intricate multi-step battleplans. Reference Offensive Line for more detail. |
Shift X | Spearhead | Can only be used with an army that has at least one Front Line already created. After activating by clicking the Spearhead button or pressing the Shift + X key ⇧ShiftX, right click and drag to draw the spearhead line. Compared to the Offensive Line, the Spearhead will aggressively try to take all provinces that were there when the order was first painted. Spearheads are preferred when you need to do overlapping encirclements, cutting off the enemy, or for more controlled, smaller thrusts into enemy territory. Spearheads tend to be narrow thrusts that can be especially useful for armored divisions. Reference Spearhead for more detail. Note: The Spearhead Order is only available with the Together for Victory expansion . |
C | Fallback Line | Click the Fallback Line button or press the C key C, then right click and drag to create a defensive line anywhere (not just on a border). This allows you to station divisions in specific provinces or along a specific set of terrain (like a river). Reference Fallback Line for more detail. |
V | Garrison Area | Click the Garrison Area button or press the V key V to activate this mode, then select the states for your army to be stationed in. When you are done assigning, click the Garrison Area button or hit V V again to exit this mode. The selected divisions will spread out among the states and occupy cities, airbases, and naval bases. This is generally best used for occupying territory with garrisons to keep resistance low. Note that unlike other orders, if a Garrison order is assigned to any part of an army, the rest of the army cannot be assigned any other order without first removing the garrison order. It is an exclusive order. Therefore, an army with a garrison order should only include units that will be assigned to that order. Adding any new units to the army automatically has them join the garrison order. Reference Garrison Area for more detail. |
Ctrl | Divisions Assignment Mode | Click the Divisions Assignment Mode button or while holding control ^Ctrl, left click on a battle plan to assign the currently selected units to that plan. Alternatively, you can right click on any battleplan while holding control ^Ctrl to select all units currently assigned to that plan. |
Ctrl H | Unassign Divisions Mode | Clicking the Unassign Divisions Mode button, or while holding control and the H key ^CtrlH, will unassign the currently selected divisions from their orders. |
Alt | Edit Mode | Click the Edit Mode button or while holding Alt alt, you can edit existing battleplans. Alt alt + right click and drag alters the length and shape of front lines, offensive lines, and fallback lines. Alt alt + Left Click alters offensive arrows to bend or change their origin point (can even change the origin point to the end of another offensive line). |
Del | Delete Order | Clicking the Delete Order button or pressing the Delete key Delete allows you to selectively remove individual battleplans assigned to the current army. Right-clicking the Delete Order button will delete all orders of the currently selected army. |
Division management hotkeys[edit]
These keys apply when you have divisions currently selected.
Key | Action | Description |
---|---|---|
None | Disband All Selected Units | Click the Disband All Selected Units button to disband the selected units. This action will return the division manpower to the recruitable population pool and will return the division equipment to the stockpile. Caution: Disbanding surrounded (encircled) units will permanently eliminate the manpower and permanently destroy the equipment. |
None | Unassign Units | Click the Unassign Units button to remove the selected divisions from the army. Note that this action preserves the divisions for reassignment to a new or different army. |
None | Consolidate | Click the Consolidate button to merge the selected divisions into one unit. This action can be used to take multiple understrength, damaged divisions and create stronger, full strength divisions with no loss of experience. The excess manpower is returned to the recruitable population pool and the excess equipment is returned to the stockpile. Note that this action can only be performed on divisions having the same template. |
None | Change Division Template | Click the Change Division Template button to change the selected divisions to a different template from a pull-down menu. Reference Division designer. |
S | Select Half | Click the Select Half button or press the S key S to deselect half of the currently selected units as evenly as possible, but does not remove them from an army to which they belong. Press multiple times to continue to split the selection in half (round up). Can be used to select a single unit from a stack. For example: Select a stack of 9 infantry, hit Select Half once (deselects 4, leaving 5 selected). Hit Select Half again (deselects 2, leaving 3 selected). Hit Select Half again (deselects 1, leaving two selected). Hit Select Half a 4th time and there remains only 1 unit selected. Attempting to Select Half of a single unit results in no action. This can be used to quickly grab a stack, hit S 5 or 6 times to get a single unit very quickly and send it on a new mission. |
H | Hold | Click the Hold button or press the H key H to order a unit to hold position, effectively canceling any move or attack orders currently assigned to the unit. This will not cancel their assignment to a front line, so if a hold order is given to a unit which is currently being moved due to a battleplan, it will hold only for a moment before immediately resuming their part in the battleplan. See next section. |
B | Strategic Redeployment | Click the Strategic Redeployment button or press the B key B before giving divisions a movement command, this will tell the divisions to utilize the strategic redeployment command meaning they will move at a speed of 10 km/h + up to 10 km/h extra, depending on the state's infrastructure. |
CTRL B | Toggle Strategic Redeployment | Clicking the Strategic Redeployment button or by pressing CTRL B CTRLB after giving divisions a movement command will toggle on/off the strategic redeployment command. |
Shift | Waypoint | Like many other strategy games, holding shift ⇧Shift while right clicking sets a series of waypoints for selected units. They will choose the best path to get to each waypoint in succession. This allows units to navigate around problem areas like enemies, bad terrain, or low supply zones. Note: View the full route to check for hazards on the way. |
Ctrl* | Support Attack | With a unit selected, hold down control ^Ctrl and right click on an existing battle to 'support' that battle. Supporting a battle will allow the unit to participate in the battle, but it will *not* leave its province and enter the battle hex upon conclusion. This can be very valuable to preserve the integrity of the front line. |
Ctrl+H | Remove from Assigned Battleplan | This key combination ^CtrlH removes the currently selected divisions from their current battleplan without removing them from their current army. This is the only known way to remove multiple divisions from an assigned battleplan without giving them a new battleplan. When they are removed, they become independent divisions within the army that can be given direct orders separately , or assigned to another battleplan. Note that this will not work for units that are part of an army that has any garrison order. |
Naval hotkeys[edit]
Key | Action | Description |
---|---|---|
Ctrl + number | Assign a Task Force(s) to a number | Left click on a Task Force to select it or left click while holding Shift ⇧Shift to select multiple Task Forces. Then, while holding down the Ctrl ^Ctrl key, press a number key 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. This process assigns the pressed number as a hotkey for quickly selecting a Task Force or combination of Task Forces. Tip: pressing a number hotkey twice will center the map on your assigned unit(s). |
P | Navy Overview | The P key P opens the Navy Overview, also accessible with the button at the top right of the screen. |
D | Split | Splits/Divides the selected quantity of ships into two task forces. |
S | Select Half | Selects half of the currently selected naval units. It tries to keep an equal number of each type of vessel in each new task force. |
G | Merge | Merges the selected ships into one task force. If the ships are not in the same province, then they will find a path to each other to merge. |
K | Naval Exercises | Gains experience for selected task force ships in addition to navy experience, but costs fuel and increases risk of ship damage. |
H | Hold | Order ships to move to a selected sea province or naval base. This will cancel any existing missions. Capital ships placed in a sea province neighboring a land battle will help out with shore bombardment. |
Z | Patrol | Orders ships to patrol the selected regions. |
X | Strike Force | Order ships to wait at the closest naval base until a patrol task force spots an enemy task force, then the strike force will move to intercept it. |
C | Convoy Raiding | Order ships to raid enemy convoys in the selected regions. |
V | Convoy Escort | Order ships to escort convoys in the selected regions to protect them against enemies. |
A | Naval Invasion Support | Order ships to escort naval invasions and support them with shore bombardment. |
Air hotkeys[edit]
Key | Action | Description |
---|---|---|
Ctrl + number | Assign an Air Wing(s) to a number | Left click on an Air Wing to select it or left click while holding Shift ⇧Shift to select multiple Air Wings. Then, while holding down the Ctrl ^Ctrl key, press a number key 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. This process assigns the pressed number as a hotkey for quickly selecting an Air Wing or combination of Air Wings. Tip: pressing a number hotkey twice will center the map on your assigned unit(s). |
L | Airforce Overview | The L key L opens the Airforce Overview, also accessible with the button at the top right of the screen. |
A | Select/Deselect All | Selects/Deselects all of the air wings in a given airfield or carrier. |
S | Select Half | Selects half of the currently selected air wings. |
D | Split | Splits/Divides the selected air wings in two. |
G | Merge | Merges two or more selected wings into one wing. Note: each wing can hold up to a maximum of 1000 planes. |
O | Reorganize | Opens reorganize option to reorganize your wings. |
N | New Wing | Opens new wing option to add to the selected airfield or carrier. |
H | Hold Order | Holds selected air wings. |
K | Pilot Exercises | Gains experience for selected air wing in addition to air experience, but costs fuel and increases risk of accidents. |
Z | Air Superiority Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct an air superiority mission. |
X | Close Air Support Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct a close air support mission. |
C | Interception Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct an interception mission. |
V | Strategic Bombing Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct a strategic bombing mission. |
B | Naval Strike Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct a naval strike mission. |
J | Port Strike Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct a port strike mission. |
Ctrl + B | Kamikaze Strike Mission | Orders selected air wings to conduct a kamikaze strike mission. |