What are the best HoI4 mods? Paradox Interactive’s gigantic strategy games have always been a modder’s playground, and none more than eight-year-old WW2 behemoth Hearts of Iron 4. There are over 20,000 Hearts of Iron 4 mods available, from texture overhauls to beautify the map, through to total conversion mods that port HoI4 into the World of Warcraft or Middle-earth. Here, we explain the best mods to use in 2024 (and how to install them).
All are being actively updated for the latest patches, and are designed to be widely compatible with all the best Hearts of Iron 4 DLC – and we’ve included helpful details to help you get each one up and running. For extra tips, you can always try our guide to Hearts of Iron 4 console commands, or give another of the best grand strategy games a go.
Once you’ve spotted one you like, skip to our walkthrough at the end to learn exactly how to download and install these Hoi4 mods and start playing. For now, though, let’s get modding!
The best Hearts of Iron 4 mods are:
Kaiserreich
The veteran alternate history mod on the block, this one can trace its origin back to Hearts of Iron II. Kaiserreich asks and answers the daring question: ‘What if Germany won WWI?’ A deeply rich world fourteen years in the making, every aspect of this alternate history is fully fleshed out in this latest incarnation to delight fans of the legacy of this mod as well as new players.
Tackling an entirely dynamic yet strangely parallel political landscape boasting thousands of unique events, fully fleshed out focus trees, and quirky interactions, this mod gives the player a tantalizing taste of living in an alternate timeline. A true joy to experience for the story and drama with brand new ideologies and situations based on all of the consequences of this ‘what if’.
The visual appeal is impressive, as the custom models and graphics add true immersion to this other world. If you’re interested in the compelling alternate histories HoI4 mods can explore, this is maybe the best of the bunch.
Read our Kaiserreich mod review.
Old World Blues
Old World Blues brings the Fallout universe to HoI4, which makes for a surprisingly solid combination.
The research tab has been replaced by a new tech tree, reflecting the state of the Fallout universe in 2275; some of the ‘tribal’ factions will be equipped with spears and scavenged firearms, where the more advanced factions can research and deploy the vaunted Power Armor that has been on the cover of most every Fallout release in the last few years.
Many of the factions will have their own unique decisions and focus trees. Much of this will be familiar to players of New Vegas, but there is plenty grabbed from the lore of the first and second Fallout games as well.
There’s a lot of depth here, and more on the way, as the modding team is looking to expand the map eastward past the plains and to the Atlantic coast, where we will see the Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth of Boston represented as well. Keep your eye on this one.
Hearts of Azeroth
First released in 2021, Hearts of Azeroth is a phenomenally detailed total conversion mod that uproots the Hearts of Iron 4 experience from 1930s and ’40s Earth, and rebuilds it from the ground up in Azeroth, the sprawling fantasy setting of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft MMO.
The map is absolutely vast, covering all of Azeroth and the Orc home planet of Draenor – 1512 states and 13,723 provinces, with 308 playable nations, and 155 unique races (15 of which get their own custom tech trees). Gameplay-wise, it’s focused on the original Warcraft trilogy of RTS games, putting you in command of a nation within the Alliance of Lordaeron, the Orcish Horde, one of the Dragon Aspects, or one of the tribes of Kalimdor.
Famous Warcraft names like Stormwind, Ironforge, Stromgarde, and the Defias Brotherhood – plus a dozen or so others – all get their own distinct focus tree (or at least a branch from a generic one) – allowing you to play out Azeroth’s wars in true, Paradox-level strategic detail. If you’ve sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into both WoW and HoI4, this mod is a must play.
The Lord of the Rings
Come on, you knew there would be a Lord of the Rings Hoi4 mod in here. Just like the titular magic ring itself, the idea of using Paradox’s sophisticated systems, maps, and overlays to recreate J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth and its wars is simply too powerful for us strategy and fantasy nerds to resist.
Modder Helliaca’s preposterously large and detailed LOTR total conversion HoI4 mod has been going since 2018. It re-sets the game in a full map of the continent of Middle-earth, complete with brand new events and player decisions based on the LOTR trilogy’s narrative, and custom reskins for infantry units – turning your little riflemen into Gondor spearmen or orcs with pikes.
No fewer than 12 famous Middle-earth powers get their own scratch-built national focus trees – including biggies like Mordor, Gondor, Rohan, and Isengard – but also smaller elvish powers of Rivendell and Lothlòrien, and Mirkwood, and far-flung bit players like Harad.
The One Ring plays a role, too – it’s a custom National Spirit that gives your military divisions a buff, but it also kickstarts its own event chain, with decisions to make for various nations involved. You even get to form a Fellowship!
Star Wars: Project Valachord
If we’re including Lord of the Rings, we can’t very well leave the best Star Wars HoI4 mod off our list, now can we? Star Wars: Project Valachord is a brand new mod – first launched in November 2023 – that transports Hearts of Iron 4 wholesale into the Star Wars galaxy, swapping the real world map for a large, custom starfield of planets and star systems, and casting you as one of 11 authentic Star Wars factions, with new fan-made, in-universe focus trees to match.
The mod plays out during the Galactic Civil War era of Star Wars – i.e. the time of the original trilogy, with rebel factions and Outer Rim smugglers duking it out against the might of the Galactic Empire. You can lead the Empire as Emperor Sheev Palpatine a.k.a. Darth Sidious; take over the Rebel Alliance out of Alderaan as Mon Mothma, become Saw Gerrera and lead Saw’s Partisans, or any of various other well known names.
It’s still early days for Project Valachord, but it’s already racked up over 20,000 subscribers in half a year, and is getting regular updates, with unique focus trees for the Corellian Resistance, Hapans, Mandalore, and the Hutts reportedly on the way. We’ll be watching its career with great interest…
End of a New Beginning
Ever wish Hearts of Iron 4 had the option to play in the Victorian era, exploring all the colonial conflicts and imperial machinations of the late 19th century, rather than merely 1936-1945? Enter End of a New Beginning, an ambitious, as yet unfinished total conversion mod that shifts the beginning of your Hoi4 playthrough to the year 1857, aiming to allow campaigns to run through over 70 years of tumultuous imperial history, and end in 1930.
As you’d expect, the mod features custom tech trees and national focuses to represent your nation’s development and abilities over half a century earlier than we see them in vanilla Hearts of Iron 4 – and the community team behind the project is working on content to represent a swathe of contemporary events and challenges, from the notorious ‘Scramble for Africa’ to the 1861-65 American Civil War.
The downside to such lofty goals is that, after nearly two years of development, End of a New Beginning is still far from a finished product. But it’s far from dead; updates are ongoing and modders appear hard at work on its v0.3 ‘Ars Bellica’ (Art of War) segment, which promises overhauled naval tech systems, and widespread improvements for Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. If you love Victoria 3 and want to be part of a community effort to create the same era in Hearts of Iron, give this mod a go.
Cold War Iron Curtain
Cold War Iron Curtain changes the setting to the Cold War period, with start dates ranging from 1949 through to 1970. There are plans to extend the timeline into the 1990s.
This mod features between 10-20 years worth of content for all the major powers, including some minors. It also has thousands of new events, new units, new mechanics including DECON and MAD. You can purchase equipment from the private sector, a new economic system. Many nations have their own unique mechanics as well.
Read our full Cold War Iron Curtain mod review.
BlackICE Historical Immersion
One of the more famous mods from the days of Hearts of Iron 3, BlackICE is an immersion & realism mod aimed at making the game more challenging & historical.
It’s actually recommended that you play with ‘Historical Focus’ switched on for this mod, as it caters for the crowd who specifically want the challenge of WW2 as it unfolded, as opposed to the growing alt-history/sandbox crowd.
Everything from new units and equipment, to new national Focus Trees (many borrowed from other mods that have done good work in this area), to expanding on the Law and Politics mechanics has been looked at.
The AI is more challenging, there’s more breadth and depth of options, and, generally speaking, this is an excellent historical immersion experience.
The Great War
Why fight WW2, when you can turn HoI4 into one of the best WW1 games instead? The Great War does exactly what it says on the tin – Hearts of Iron 4 has been transformed to the world of 1910, where old-fashioned imperialistic powers jockey for supremacy at the dawn of the 20th Century.
The game & mechanics have been completely overhauled to fit the period – that means that innovations like tanks and planes will take a while to enter the fray, so you’ll mainly be looking at infantry tactics. The team is currently at work on bridging the gap between the First and Second World Wars, with work being done on the interwar tech and decision trees.
The Road to 56
More than just extending the timeline to 1956, this mod peppers the entire world with greater detail and complexity. Not content to wait for Paradox to release content packs for various countries, The Road to 56 provides deep and sometimes quirky focus trees for dozens of countries overlooked by the base game.
The most amazing part about this deeper focus on different countries is that it offers choices that go to the very heart of the focus system: the ability to choose a nation’s destiny does not need to be an exercise in strict historicity. The creativity that the team places on the focus trees is bolstered by upgrades and expansions to the technologies, political mechanics, laws, etc. This is a one stop shop for a total enhancement of the game.
This mod is compatible with Version 1.9.2 Husky & all DLC. At the time of writing, an update to 1.10 Collie is expected within the next week.
Millennium Dawn
Winner of the ‘Outstanding Modding Achievement’ at the 2018 PDXCon, Millennium Dawn delivers exactly what one would imagine: the modern world set in stunning detail on the HoI4 Engine.
This mod will be the closest we’ll get to a global geopolitical grand strategy set in contemporary times and its fantastic depth makes it an exciting if not eerie look at today’s world.
One of the best examples of the impressive capabilities of totally overhauling the game, this mod promises political intrigue that’s worthy of network news.
Anime History
What is it with anime and World War Two? Japanese animated series just love importing quirky teenage girls with outrageous hairstyles into the roles of soldiers, sailors, pilots, and commanders on both Allied and Axis sides of history’s most deadly conflict, and – if the 111,000 subscribers to Shota’s Anime History mod are anything to go by – Hearts of Iron 4 players are here for it.
This mod replaces every single character portrait in the game (over 1,000) with an anime portrait, adds original anime-themed events, news reports, military and political advisors, and swaps out a range of in-game images (including tech tree icons) for suitably kawaii alternatives. It even adds waifu voice lines for your units to speak when selected.
It should go without saying that comprehensively re-skinning a serious WW2 strategy game with light-hearted cartoon characters is not something that’ll appeal to every player, and some might not approve of trivializing its real historical content in this way.
But HoI4 is a videogame meant to be enjoyed, and modding is about using creativity to make the game you want to play – so make your own judgement. If you find joy in playing Hearts of Iron 4 with a cutesy anime twist, this is the mod to do it with.
Expert AI 5.0
Expert AI 5.0 puts in a lot of behind the scenes work to make the AI a more challenging opponent for the players, specifically with the 1936 start with Historical Focus mode turned on.
This could also be considered an ‘overhaul’ mod of sorts, given the extensive work done with the AI, but it’s not meant to necessarily give the player an alternative scenario or a more immersive experience.
It’s not able to address everything, but it touches a wide range of AI behaviours & decision making systems so that computer opponents fight smarter & harder. It’s also not recommended you use this mod while playing minor nations.
This mod has some very specific compatibility requirements. If you don’t have Man the Guns and certain other DLC packs, the mod may also cause some unexpected AI behaviour – as always, check the latest update notes before installing!
Texture Overhaul – Terrain
The nitty gritty of realistic global warfare is reflected in 2019 mod Texture Overhaul – Terrain, a meticulous reworking of the terrain textures into landscapes that not only look more realistic, but speak of the startling scope of the conflict.
A gorgeous tour de force, no one is the poorer for this graphical upgrade which brings an added level of immersion to the rampaging divisions vying for global control.
One of the best things about this mod is that it doesn’t sacrifice performance, allowing the player to enjoy a greater expanse of visual goodies without any added lag.
Soldier’s Radio Extended
While the epic tones of HOI4 may be great for the high stakes drama, it’s still rewarding to sit back and listen to the music of the era and of the common soldier. Soldier’s Radio Extended adds three gigabytes of WW2-era music to fill your game with that exact experience.
Highly immersive and strangely sombre, this music pack of over 600 songs (though not all are historically accurate) aims to create a certain atmosphere that reminds the player that they’re leading millions of ordinary folks to death, heartache, and sacrifice.
World News
One of the things HoI4 lacks is the view of how the general population fares when the world is in turmoil. World News brings back the newspaper feature of Victoria II, giving a glimpse into the life of the average person during wartime.
There are some recycled items from Victoria II, but this mod goes a ways towards breaking up the monotony of the early game slog where all you can do is wait for foci to finish and factories to be built.
HoI4 In Real Time!
Have you ever thought: ‘Gee, Hearts of Iron goes way too fast for me! If only there was something more immersive?’ Well, you’re in luck! With HoI4 In Real Time, the game takes a full 60 real-life minutes to process one in-game hour at the slowest speed. You read that correctly.
Don’t use this mod. Or do. But really, you know: don’t.
How to download and install HoI4 mods:
It’s never been easier to download Hearts of Iron 4 mods, as there are now two official platforms that allow you to subscribe to mods and have them automatically download and install: the Steam Workshop, and the developer’s own Paradox Mods forum.
All the mods in this list are available free via Steam, though, so we recommend you use that method to make your life easier. All you need to do is sign into Steam, click one of the links above to visit the mod’s Workshop page, and click subscribe. The mod will be automatically downloaded to the correct folder on your computer, and will populate the mods section in HOI4’s launcher.
That doesn’t mean everything is guaranteed to work every time, though – even the best mods can still have some compatibility issues, depending on which version of the game you have installed, and which official DLC packs you’re using. For best results, follow these tips with any mod you want to play with:
- Check if the mod is up to date with the most recent patch for HoI4. Once a new expansion comes out, you may have to wait a few days, weeks, or even months for bigger mods, until the mod is updated. Thankfully, HoI4 will give you a warning if you’re about to load a mod that isn’t up to date. Also, each mod will tell you on the side menu if it requires certain DLC.
- Still want to play that favourite mod of yours but HoI4’s latest update ruins your save game? You can always roll back your HoI4 version to continue your campaign. Check the mod’s Steam Workshop page or the Paradox forums on how to do this, since it might be different for each mod and version of the game. If all else fails, ask in the comments threads for instructions!
- Check if the mods you’ve selected are compatible with the other mods you’ve downloaded. This information is usually found on each mod’s page as they usually list which mods they are able to run with.
- As a rule, the more of the game’s fundamental systems a mod changes, the less likely it is that it’s going to play nicely with other mods. Total conversion mods, in particular, are often incompatible with almost every other mod – so if you’re planning to start a Hearts of Azeroth run, make sure to untick Old World Blues in the launcher first!
- Remember that most mods are not compatible with Hearts of Iron 4’s Ironman mode, as they change game balance. If you’re achievement hunting, you’ll need to find those mods that will tell you in their descriptions that they’re Ironman compatible.
- Finally, sometimes it takes a while for the HoI4 interface to properly load the mod’s latest version. Check if you have auto-updates enabled for mods and then, if you’re unsure, simply relaunch the HoI4 launcher to check if all of the mods are present and up to date.
And that’s it – you’re now ready to install some killer Hearts of Iron 4 mods and play Paradox’s premiere WW2 strategy game in whatever weird and wonderful alternate universe you like! More than enough to keep you occupied while we wait for them to announce Hearts of Iron 5.
If you fancy a change of tactical pace, you can always pick out a new title – you may well find something suitable in our guide to the best Total War games. Or, for a tabletop alternative, check out our picks of the best strategy board games on the market.
Source: Wargamer
