After almost a year of waiting and many flip outs on Paradox Interactive’s (The game/expansion) social media, the expansion for their World War 2 simulator, Hearts of Iron 4, Man the Guns is finally here. This new expansion features many new things including a naval tech system that has been completely overhauled as well as how naval combat is conducted. The focus trees (what your country is doing at the current time) for the United Kingdom and United States have been reworked, and Mexico and the Netherlands have all new focus trees.

Prior to this new expansion, naval technology was quite limited and the way naval combat was conducted was not as fleshed out as combat on land. The naval technology in the past only allowed new models of ships to be researched and to put those new models into production.

Now, not only can players research new models of ships, but can also now research new types of ammunition, sonar technology, and depth charges as well. Naval conduct has also been significantly updated. Fuel has been added to the game along with oil that was already in the game as a resource. There’s also the ability to do with your ships such as laying mines and players can now convert different types of ships into new ones.

The four new focus trees for the Netherlands, Mexico, United Kingdom, and United States now have much more for the player to do when playing those countries. As expected, part of the focus trees go along with the new naval system, however there is much more to do. Each country has multiple ways that the player can take these countries in. For example you can make the United States fascist through the focus tree and after a civil war there is much more to do when the war ends. Or players can choose to make Mexico a theocracy and take the fight to other Central American countries.

The reworked and all new focus trees are a welcome change to these nations. It is now interesting to play as the United States and United Kingdom because you can play with alternate history and have something to do if you play with the historical route.

This new expansion to Hearts of Iron 4 was worth the wait as the naval rework was sorely needed, and now gives the player a good reason to invest time with naval technology other than the fact that a navy is needed to fight many wars. For anyone interested in grand strategy games, the expansion to Hearts of Iron 4 is worth checking out.