Expansion - Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back

Expansion - Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back
N/A
Metacritic
73
Steam
72.118
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$19.99
Release date
23 November 2021
Full game
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
73 (2 835 votes)
Recent
80 (55 votes)

The Second World War’s hardest fighting was on the Eastern Front of Europe. Rival regimes threw men and machines into a bitter struggle through sun and snow, marsh and steppe, and, in the end, the Soviet Union emerged victorious as one of the most powerful nations on earth.

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Expansion - Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows® 7 64 Bit | Windows® 8.1 64 Bit | Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 750 | AMD® FX 4300
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 470 (1.28GB) | AMD® HD 5850 (1GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake) | AMD® Radeon™ RX Vega 11 | Steam Deck
  • DirectX: Version 9.0
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Direct X- compatible soundcard
  • Additional Notes: Mouse and keyboard are required. / Latest available WHQL drivers from both manufacturers/ Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer, Up to 32 other players in multiplayer mode.
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Reviews
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Hannibal
Hannibal

Good DLC if only for the new supply system and tank designer alone. The Soviet focus tree is the cherry on top even if there isn't a democratic path (the baltics are only good for the achievements imo). All in all this is the only DLC that is almost justified to cost 20€

Jewsh
Jewsh

Its been almost a year and several bugs in the new Soviet tree haven't been fixed and by blood alone added even more. I understand having to fix things after release but a company that doesn't fix broken products after 11 months cant expect people to continue buying them

marcoandreibica2006
marcoandreibica2006

Well I've paid for that DLC and still didn't have time playing because I can't find. Thanks a lot Steam

Махарбал Великолепный
Махарбал Велик…

Танковому конструктору моё почтение, ждём By blood alone, и потом конструктор стрелкового вооружения и артиллерии

Keeksu lahe juust
Keeksu lahe juust

The new Baltic trees are cool af and the new Polish tree is actually interesting. I can't really comment on Russian tree cause it feels wrong playing as Soviet Union when you are from an ex-soviet state.

BunnyboyCarrot
BunnyboyCarrot

One of the best DLCs for the base game of HOI 4. The focus trees are really the main course here. The addition the corps system is also great, and the tank designer is pretty neat, too, but really only because it has an auto-design mechanic for people like me :)

Now, is it worth 20€? That depends. If you feel you really need the new mechanics this DLC offers, go at em. But to anyone else, wait for a little sale so that it's more around 15€.

Galactispunk
Galactispunk

If you can only get one expansion, get this one. This is easily the best DLC for HOI4. There's no filler, no bad focus trees and no mechanics that should absolutely just be in the base game. Plus this is the one DLC that's big enough for the price to not be ridiculously high. It's just unfairly high.

papa no
papa no

i think finland kind of deserved a focus tree more than like
latvia
but still pretty damn good focus trees
Oh, the tank builder? Yeah now I can make Mao Zetonk as communist china, 10/10 gameplay

CrunchyToads
CrunchyToads

Best one Yet! good job Paradox.

Youesder
Youesder

A very interesting DLC that puts some new mehanics. And a amazing focuses for USSR, Poland, and the Baltic Countries. But the price is a little too expensive so you rather buy with a discount. Final score 8.5/10

[=WiJ=]
[=WiJ=]

This is hands down the best hoi4 dlc released. With the whole logistic system and tank designer change the game's play style. However, it is not recommended to buy this dlc in full price.

Arditi
Arditi

literally 20 euro for your logistics getting destroyed completly. Thanks

elipara
elipara

Only Paradox DLC worth the price.

IR0N
IR0N

I hate the tank designer with a burning passion, I can always disable the DLC but that would remove the other features this DLC has, just let us able to disable specific features each DLC has.

Wu8c129
Wu8c129

Good DLC except they upped the price and honestly doesnt add enough to be worth nearly half of the base game.

Everyone says get it on sale except as far as I am aware this dlc hasnt gone on sale for nearly a year, not once. You always have to wait atleast a year to avoid paying 25 bucks for a dlc, atleast it aint like that new ck3 one where you are paying for events. The only reason I am rating this down is because its overpriced and doesnt go onsale, if you are into the countries it adds content for I say go for it, other than that give it like 2 more months before it goes on sale.

Dartheveloper
Dartheveloper

All DLCs should be free updates no worth it at all

Duked and Nuked
Duked and Nuked

Alot of cool things in this patch. But it somehow made USSR so bad it's to the point of you begin to wonder if the developers ever picked up a non-anglo mainstream history book ever in their whole career when they researched things to put in the Hearts of Iron games.

JChxzz
JChxzz

paid 15 pounds to get my supply fucked

mop
mop

i love this dlc to the point where i'd buy it for the full price. it gives the ussr so much depth and 5 different ideological paths which of whom are all incredibly fleshed out and fun. by far the tzar and the historical one are my favorites because they have the most amount of content but also provide a challenge. about the baltic countries and poland, poland has such a big focus tree with about 10 different paths with at least 2 paths for every ideology. my favorite are the monarchy paths, all of them (and the secret one) because they give you the buffs required to be able to stand your ground aginst both the 3rd reich and the ussr. the baltic states have the exact same communist tree for all of them and its pretty mediocre imo. where they really shine is in their fascist paths. estonia,latvia, and lithuania have amazing fascist paths that are fun but also provide a challenge (also lithuania has an op monarchy path) now about the supply mechanic, its a bit complicated but i personally like the railways and supply hubs and also the fact that naval bases can be used for supplies is good as well. now let's get into my 2nd favorite part of NSB, the tank designer, GOOD LORD is the tank designer fun, you are able to make the weakest tanks for mass production and for use inside a division but you could also make beasts with 2500 breakthrough and 800 soft but they will be more expensive, i love how pdx balances it all out making it a little more fair because it would be gamebreaking if you could mass produce incredibly powerful tanks. TL:DR Buy NSB, if not full price on sale or on some sketchy russian key website. It is a must-have for anyone that wishes to play any of the countries improved by this dlc or likes tanks and/or trains

Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh

Buying these dlc further invigorates them to do a bad job developing the base game to sell us dlcs later. do not buy pardox products or they will take this further, do we really need more eu4 400$ expansions? for the sake of gaming just bypass pardox untill they decide they will change, we both know u can squeezes any fun outa hoi3 and 4 rn with out italy peace conferences that make no sense and airplane parts. infact want to know what this dlc does? 20 dollars for 5 new focus trees, tank modding and a horribly broken supply system. save your money for devs who try and put in work and release alphas for us to help them test not throw it back at us as a dlc. your telling me you cant wait 3 months for coh3? just want o save you time and money. DONT BUY PARDOX GAMES OR DLCS UNTIL THEY FUNCTION PROPERLY and the cost reflects the effort

Father Pucci
Father Pucci

It is good really good even tho my friends can't expenince No Step Back cause they don't have it

ablueduck
ablueduck

after playing with this dlc on for some time I gotta say its quite good although tank research tree has parts that overlap, poland and russia got much needed monarchy paths and baltic states can actually do things

Pbatt
Pbatt

Initial patches were really quite bad. Paradox clearly had a hard deadline and needed to push the DLC out before Black Friday.

Its now February and after several patches tweaking stats and fixing some bugs, I can comfortably say that this DLC is nice to have but not necessary.

The associated patches however fixing quality of life stuff have been great and Paradox has shifted to a new release pattern providing beta patches ahead of full releases which is awesome.

Looking forward to the next few years of HOI!

Panzerkampfwagen VI
Panzerkampfwagen VI

This is the best DLC so far for HoI4, I really enjoy playing as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Poland or the baltic states. I also really like the new tank designer. And the supply system is very interesting.

Now , my question is : When is a DLC for Italy going to come?

Mob
Mob

Paradox Games such as Stellaris and hoi4 are going through big changes.

No Step Back appears to be miles from finished. Stellaris is about to become a new game again. Not really playing Paradox right now. Shame but I play HOI4 for tanks and encirclements as much as anything and it is not up to scratch months later.

Stellaris will be a disaster for the next 12 months. Hopefully HOI4 is fixed soon.

kaiserfelixxxxxx
kaiserfelixxxxxx

deffinitly worth it although i think finland should have got a focus tree but the batic states and poland in my opionion are the stars of this dlc and supply army command and new tanks are cool its got a high price tag but i think its justifyable.

WILLBOT
WILLBOT

There is nothing "broken" or "buggy" about this DLC. The people leaving negative reviews are full of s__t. They probably just can't comprehend how the supply system works. Is the AI perfect? No, and it never has been. But they are tougher than ever before. I have noticed that AI does everything they can to defend supply hubs and keep rail supply lines going. The AI is also better than ever at avoiding/stopping encirclements. AI USSR makes tons of tank divisions before '41 and the initial push at declaration of war is often difficult as Germany. Cutting a railway that supplies the enemy, and watching their organization/supply drop is pretty gratifying. It is also more difficult to pull off encirclements as a human player. You really need to strategize where your thrusts will be...as you can never really get too far from a supply base. It also takes time for supply to dwindle....so even if you're far from the supply hub, if you got to where you are quickly you might still be able to keep pushing. Sometimes the next supply base along the rail line is very far away, and the key is to push as fast as you can before your fuel/supplies run out. You can also use transport planes to supply your divisions if they're in a poorly supplied area. But it takes A LOT of planes to fully supply.

This new supply mechanic has completely and utterly changed the North African Theatre, in particular. It's actually pretty cool. Stalemates, 100% due to supply issues, are the norm now. That theatre of war requires more thinking now.

This DLC is must-have in my eyes. If you have a lot of hours in HOI4 just get it. $20 is a solid price too. 33% less than that rip-off Royal Court

David
David

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second live for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Cyberpunk 2077
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

SharkKing5
SharkKing5

I NEED ALL THE RAILWAY GUNS! I WONT SETTLE FOR 20 I NEED THEM ALL.

AveragePantsPeer
AveragePantsPeer

Мы не будем стоять за наших правых соседей. Убивая, пытая, порабощая наш народ в ад рейха, мы не отступим ни на шаг!

CMCMC
CMCMC

I paid for all expansions and in return I received pop-up and banner ad.
good job paradox.

Temüjin
Temüjin

I'm sort of in-between on whether I like this or not. On one hand, it makes the soviets really fun, on the other hand, everything else it adds seems a bit pointless, especially because I don't use tanks often. Is it worth it? If you have spare money, yes. If it's on sale, yes. Otherwise, I'd skip it.

Kato
Kato

While well intentioned, the new logistics system requires so much micro-management and takeaway from construction time of previously crucial development for war preparation and maintenance without providing a balance in ability to deal with the new logistics system and other aspects of construction.

Also incredibly buggy, including very obvious bugs that have no reason to not have been patched by now.

And DEF not worth $20.

VeronV
VeronV

It's a buggy mess at launch why do they do this

SimpkinSlice
SimpkinSlice

Alot of meh features, several of which (like the tank builder) are rendered obsolete by the balance patch that accompanied this DLC.

Very strange to do "Russia" and "Baltics" but leave out Russia's key opponent other than Germany (Finland) from any sort of update or interesting mechanic.

Logistics and AI are straight borked, if the AI Soviets can never win historical runs, how are players supposed to?

Bisquits_222
Bisquits_222

I spent ages learning this game.
My first ever victory without using cheats was amazing i felt so accomplished.

Now with no step back not only do i have to re learn everything its a buggy broken mess and has made all of asia an unplayable nightmare
I do like the concept but terrible execution

Jack-ONeill
Jack-ONeill

This game has been out for years, and still has some important bugs that can ruin gameplay. For example, if a unit is about to retreat under attack, and another fresh unit arrives at its location, they will suddenly both retreat, even though the fresh unit has not even faced combat yet... What?!?

These bugs might seem small, but can ruin a game, after hours and hours sunk into a session.

vanrosi
vanrosi

Too much micromanagment.... it feels more like work then fun....
And the A.I. worse since the release....

Valhalla Allah
Valhalla Allah

This dlc is ok at its best and an enraging experience at its worst. Honestly it made playing kaiserreich and other overhaul mods very fun as those devs have managed to create better AI and utilized the games new mechanics better than the game devs have. The base game however is a very underwhelming experience. The old supply system was very annoying and the new has managed to be annoying for all the same reasons. The UI sucks. Its very difficult to figure out what is wrong and the whole screen is just cluttered.

Tank stuff is fine, i quite enjoy it, it was my favorite part of Man the Guns so nice to see more of it. Honestly this dlc shares a lot of qualities with man the guns. The new systems just end up being cluttered by poor UI which I understand is just not a fixable issue. While I find the paradox dlc model to be annoying at times it mostly works to the benefit of these games in the long term, however, with HOI4 I dont think it is. Many of the problems with HOI4 are fundamental, this has always been the weakest paradox game in my eyes, well i guess there is IR. No amount of bandages is going to fix this game, time to move on to HOI5.

Edit: Whoever designs the AI for this game should feel ashamed.

BIG GUY BOI
BIG GUY BOI

For me this DLC was Extremely underwhelming, not bad just not what i expected. So lets start off with the new supply system, its pretty cool, but it gets extremely repetetive after a while (its just taking supply hub after supply hub). As a minor nation its very hard to get good supply because building a supply hub takes a long amount of time. You have one decision you can do which speeds it up BUT you can usually only build one supply hub with it. With all of this being said I do still prefer this one over the old system. The officer core system is nice and very enjoyable nothing i can really criticize but what i can criticize is the new tank system and combat width system. The new tank designer has completely killed tanks, now they are too expensive to make and its just better to go for other things like CAS. The tank designer is very cool but its just a shame its practically useless since now the meta is just 10 W infantry spam and CAS. Back in the day you could make basically any division template work and if you tried it could at least be viable, but now the only template you really need to use is shitty 10 W infantry with a bunch of support companies and in my opinion its boring because now you cant really test out cool templates against other players or even AI because the 10 W infantry spam with CAS is now the only meta. Also making smaller W templates is boring because you really cant add anything cool on to the templates. In singleplayer this isnt much of an issue because most of the AI countries suck but against real players it is. But still even against the AI its much better just to make the same shit over and over again and use the same tactic of just CAS over and over again, then to actually make unique divisions and use new tactics. For example before no step back i used a lot of different types of tanks but now i find it useless to make them since i can just make infantry that does a better job at everything since its so easy and cheap to make. Also like i said before multiplayer is just the same meta of 10W (sometimes 15 W but that doesnt really change anything) infantry over and over again and if you try to do anything else you are at a disadvantage. The new focus trees are pretty cool tho so at least thats something good even though finland should have gotten one. I wouldnt say this DLC is bad but it was just not what i was hoping for and it really dissapointed me D: Oh and i completely forgot to mention, there are some bugs that still havent been patched + some new ones that are really frustrating. This DLC really feels like a DLC made to improve the russians and ONLY the russians, and while that is a good thing it has consequently made every other nation less enjoyable than before and in some cases completely ruined the experience of playing them.

Daen
Daen

One of the best DLC's for Hoi4!

James Bond 007 Daniel Craig,
James Bond 007…

buy it if you love stinky digital garbage

Anonymous
Anonymous

its not giving me the focus tree

Aulius
Aulius

best dlc ever no cap, i recommend buying subscription thingy so u get all dlc for cheap as fuck

i love playing as the baltic states no shit, they're actually nice to play as for some reason

Glorified flour
Glorified flour

not that bad
could've gotten a cuban sandwich tho

Chickenmenmenmen
Chickenmenmenmen

my soilders keep retreating due to no supply so im stepping back and theres not no step back and whyyyy do i kep losing !!! isn't 4 width god??? 3/104 would rate to come back again (but not step back because the dlc name is no steb pack so dont step back since that wouldn't be funny and its the name of the dlc (no steppe black) ) )!!!!!

sevrolpyhton2512
sevrolpyhton2512

I bought this DLC with the hopes of enjoying the content. However when I launched the game the content was not there. Would not recommend this.

a grand champ
a grand champ

i cant disable the supply line when i turn it off

mendel.gillett
mendel.gillett

I bought this only for the tank system totally worth it

LordBenBen
LordBenBen

Long time HOI player and will say that this DLC was a mix bag. I love the logistics elements that were brought to the table by this DLC. Love how you actually have to plan your attacks based on railways and supply hubs which does add a significant and new layer of strategy to consider.

HOWEVER, while these new mechanics are awesome? There is no balancing to offset the construction cost of having to build up so much logistical capacity, the cost of building new supply hubs so that your troops can keep advancing takes way too long (~3-4 months in-game which is a really long time), the ability for strategic bombers to just destroy your ability to advance is killer since they can absolutely wipe out infrastructure quickly.

Overall, its an alright DLC. Love the concept of what Paradox tried to do with this, but the execution needs a lot of tweaking to make it enjoyable.

LoveMeInTheShadows
LoveMeInTheShadows

Its a very good dlc that expands Russia a lot however 1 big downside its that the Democratic Focus Was not complited

Figuurzager
Figuurzager

There is no point in choosing any nation outside of Europe anymore. New supply system! Fantasic right?! When it takes 130 days to build one depot and the front line has already moved outside of its reach, not really... and the absolute best part about it? supply doesn't affect the AI one bit. they can stack as many divisions as they like on a tile and still have no issues what so ever supplying their troops. but as soon as you put 3 divisions on a desert tile, supply will get a bit tricky.

Further more, there is literally no point in getting tanks anymoer. just build an airforce with fighters and cas, and you're set.

it's a mystery how they do it, but Paradox has this talent to kill the part of the game they're trying to expand upon when they release a DLC. Just as Man the guns killed naval combat, this DLC completely kills tanks.

CrazzyElk
CrazzyElk

Great dlc with lots of new content to explore. Especially if you play Russia.

xooogort
xooogort

Needs to buy this to use good mods

Divine Sausage
Divine Sausage

Great DLC.

Most negative reviews moan about supply hub construction times. Pro-Tip: don't build them.

Focus your attacks on where the enemy has theirs, once captured (if not already) connect their former supply hub to your railway system.

Bonus cheesy tip: Paradrop their closest supply hubs a day or so before launching an offensive.

YangusBeef
YangusBeef

Best DLC yet. Finally gives a realistic interpretation of supply chains, but I wish they went the HOI3 method of building HQ's to store supply rather than supply depots. A little more realistic, but it works either way.

average boonie hat enjoyer
average boonie…

The good:
The new tank designer is pretty good, and encourages you to research technologies that you normally never research, as some of the best tank equipment such as good radio, stabilizers, and literal gas turbines can all be found in technologies that people rarely ever research
The new supply system can result in some pretty cool strategy, however
The bad:
Supply hubs take an absolutely ludicrous amount of time to produce given that you probably want to build them while at war to keep your troops supplied in low supply areas. This makes Europe basically the only battleground where you can use the new tanks and such without getting harassed by supply issues the moment you step out of range of the supply hubs. Naval bases can be used as supply hubs, and they're only 1/4 the price for the exact same effect.
Some strategies have become basically unbeatable. 1 example is:
CAS used to be really good for ground battles, but fall very short against all of the other planes. Now, with one of the new spirits in the new officer corps you can get a fully maxed out CAS design for only 175 exp, plus the spirit itself for 50. This allows you to get a fully maxed out CAS design as Germany in 1937 using the Spanish civil war, which makes practically a destroyer ship in the air. The only real reason to build fighters in any capacity now is if you need to intercept enemy bombers, or you need to get air superiority for a paradrop (and even then you can sometimes still use CAS for air superiority)

Overall, I still like the DLC. It's fun to use, however I do not know how they didn't see the ultra-stuka or supply being really annoying because of the supply hubs being the second highest cost building coming. 7/10

Moose
Moose

Focus trees are awsome so is the command and railway gun

Dispesys
Dispesys

Worst of the dlcs, unasked for supply system. Still no historical option in game settings. Nerfed USSR.

Bolshevik Enjoyer
Bolshevik Enjoyer

This costed me 20 dollars to buy and it was not worth it waste of money

tifteas
tifteas

i like the game but no step back a good dlc but if u change the version u cant get it back witch is unfair for players who spend money to get it and then it becomes useless it should work on any version so i hope the developers change that so the game is fair and you dont get scammed

Azubrael
Azubrael

They made a tank designer, okay kinda cool. Except that now, the DLC I bought for axis and allied tank skins....worthless. Oh and any 3rd world countries' modern tank...has no turret visually. What killed it for me, is I am producing 3 variants of the amphibious tanks (one tank, one anit-tank, and one artillery) but there is no way to add these to my divisions via the designer! They fucked it. And trains are meh~.

Mechanised_Squirrel
Mechanised_Squirrel

let me begin this review by saying if i could give mixed i would. the focus trees are amazing but the tank designer is awful trains are meh

HAMMER
HAMMER

Japan can no longer beat china. The game will be in 1946 and japan will still be at war with china. The AI doesn't build any logistics depots or infrastructure that is now mandatory to push in Asia. Also, Estonia now has a much better focus tree than Italy. One way paradox maximises profits is by never play testing anything or caring about feedback received. Hope you like lagging at 1941.

SansiS
SansiS

Probably one of the best dlc's ever relased for this game. Now you have to actually THINK and care about one of the most important element of war, the logistics. New focus for Soviets are also great. I really don't think there's a downside in this dlc. 10/10.

Aquaramses
Aquaramses

+New suply system is better than before.
+tank editor mostly balances tanks.
+new soviet,lithuania,estonia,and latvia focus treese are better than i expected.
+railguns are good buff for your armies small bonus can chnge the outcome in this game
+new soviet musics are realy good.

-suplly system hard to understand in begining
-CA (close air support) can be some times annoying destroying the railways and roads
-sometimes railway gunsget buged and stays when they encircled and defeated.

Warlord Gandhi
Warlord Gandhi

Probably the best DLC for HOI4, the supply system feels less arbitrary than before, trains are neat to use and how trucks have been changed is lit. I actually really like the tank designer, as it allows for the player to specialise more as certain countries down more specific paths than before, whilst still allow for the player to no-brain it with auto-design button (it's along the bottom, next to 'finish design, if my memory is correct).

The focus trees are, to put it simply, eBic. The Soviet Union went from one of the worst focus trees in the game to the best, the Baltics are cool, same as Poland. But they can drag on a bit, especially the Soviet's focus tree and ,obviously ,the focus times are too long for what they do and in sheer quantity of said focuses.

It's also a bit pricey, so try to get it on sale.

Overall a solid 8/10, get on sale, design some dank-tanks, shoot the counter-revolutionaries, and restore the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth

apb134
apb134

this dlc made me broke and turned me into a communist

8/10 overpriced

8mm Solutions
8mm Solutions

The expansion is very ambitious and almost turns HOI4 into an entirely new game. Unfortunately in execution it's a clumsy effort to bolt dozens of ideas into an existing game that should have been saved for HOI5. It's sort of like that old Simpsons episode where Marge finds a Chanel suit at the outlet mall and keeps cutting it up and altering it to try and turn it into a new suit.

Turkey
Turkey

Paradox has gone to a special level of effort to make sure you have to google every focus tree decision and pretty much everything else because there are just now so many decisions where you have absolutely no idea what they do.

It's just getting to an almost comical level, paradox need to learn explain the consequences of the decisions instead of making players crawl through reddit and wikis to work out what the hell is going on. I feel like this is a problem that most developers worked out several decades ago... Paradox... not so much.

mintyfresh22
mintyfresh22

amazing dlc for it's price, i get to restore soviet glory, coup with the iron wolves, etc. and with a newly reorganized supply system

Camcorder
Camcorder

I wasted 20 bucks for focus trees for irrelevant countries.

Only DLC I regret buying.

P1NKST3R
P1NKST3R

Jesse we don't need to cook. we can go play the polish focus tree

Kilzeus
Kilzeus

Worth it just for the logistics system. Reworked USSR tree is a godsend compared to the old one.

damon
damon

The update that came with the DLC is the main attraction, meaning the focus trees and the supply system add depth and more enjoyment. But the new tank designer makes tanks significantly worse. I'm not sure if it's harder or easier to come by army xp now, and the amount of xp you need to even invest in doctrines, division templates and actually good tanks is just insane. I would find myself investing into divisions and tanks long before doctrines. Sometimes I would go the majority of the war not even getting to a level 4 doctrine, because i'm still making my damn templates and making new tanks.

This is a great DLC it makes the game harder, more micro managing something I think the game has needed for a while. But the amount of xp you need to go down the doctrine tree, or to make templates and tanks is significant. In my eyes, this takes away certain play styles where you NEED the good doctrines in order to succeed.

But in the end, the DLC is amazing and I recommend you invest into it.

Hydroxide
Hydroxide

Beautiful additions to the focus trees, but a bit reliant on RNG. Many alt history decisions depend completely on chance.

Live Fast Eat Ass
Live Fast Eat Ass

Tired of having a semi-playable experience? Tired of having an AI manage mundane troop movements half-way decently? Well if so you're in luck because the new supply system had *BROKEN* the game! For *20 USD* you can watch AI *BUTCHER* troop movements and supply! AI automated troop deployments are more awful than ever! Enjoy watching your automated AI clump 65 divisions in one tile and 3 in the next!

Watch as entire army groups are encircled because the 3 frame a second late game doesn't respond properly to your retreat command, leaving your tired and beaten soldiers to flee into enemy territory!

Want to play as a small nation but still be able to build guns? NOT ANYMORE! Welcome to the hell of logistics! After all, the game AI couldn't find it's ass if you taped their had to it, leaving you to enjoy having 1/3 the amount of divisions otherwise!

Aluminum Elite Master
Aluminum Elite…

So, this is a tale of three experiences:

_______

As a 'I'm going to play with historical focuses on and be Stalin' DLC, it's fantastic. This really, really fleshes out a historical Soviet play-through: paranoia system, a whole ton of decisions and propaganda posters to tweak how you build your military or react to enemies and situations, and a focus tree that now offers plenty of options.

Purge events are the only annoying factor when playing as Stalin... sometimes, I get a purge event the moment it's possible (25+ paranoia) even when I began a manual paranoia decision a day or two earlier. There's nothing more frustrating than using the 'fabricate production numbers' decision, which lowers paranoia with no debuff added, only to still get a random purge event because it takes 7 days for the decision to execute and in the mean time I went up in paranoia. How hard is it to program it so that the decision is immediate? Why have a 7-day delay if during that 7 days the purge events aren't locked out?

_______

As a 'I'm going to re-write Soviet history' DLC, it's pretty wonky. You basically are required to take significant risks in order to go down a non-Stalinist route. And I mean non-strategic risks... it's literally just chance. And the purge events become a much bigger problem, here... the wrong purge event when going for a Trotsky approach, or any other approach for that matter, and suddenly you are without a key advisor that you wanted to use should you get rid of Stalin. It's literal chance is why this is a problem... you cannot guarantee a result, or guarantee that a purge won't take out someone relatively vital to what you want to do as a non-Stalin USSR.

When everything lines up for an a-historical USSR run, it's fun, but it's dumb luck to some extent... which is such a weird thing to do for HoI 4... EU-IV has plenty of randomness to it, and the genetic lottery of CK2 and CK3 is game-able but still random, so those games are okay to have some randomness I guess. But HoI 4 has usually been very intentional in what happens up until this DLC. So it's just really, really strange when playing as an ahistorical USSR depends on what feels like a dice throw at times.

_________

As a laboratory for tank design and army tweaking, it's great. You can now take high-level (I think 4 or higher, might be 3, might be 5) generals and field marshals and turn them into advisers you can hire to get various buffs that previously were not available unless you started with the pre-built option. In other words: if you want, as the Soviets, to have a Chief of Army that gives the +5 division attack buff, like Japan has always had as an option, then just make sure to get the right general with the right traits, send him off to the Spanish Civil War with volunteers, and raise his level until you can make him an advisor.

And the army spirits allow for more tweaking. Static Defense + building forts behind rivers, and suddenly there's an unbreach-able line there. Other spirits lower cost on 'Last Stand' and abilities like that, or let you change specific division templates for free (as in, -100% cost to add infantry battalions or whatever).

Finally, the tank designer is pretty solid and adds a reason to grab certain techs you normally wouldn't focus on if just spamming tanks... the radio upgrades come from the Radar tech line, and some gun upgrades and options come from artillery techs. The only issue I have with the tank designer is how imbalanced it is: the radio upgrades offer huge, HUGE boosts on Breakthrough %... meanwhile, I can change the armor to welded or cast-iron, but one of the two has a big penalty to production cost, so I tend to stay with the original option.

The tank-designer, if you actually take the time to read and understand it all, tends to steer you towards certain options almost every time. Wet ammunition storage is 20+ reliability, which is almost required for me to pick if I want to really upgrade engine or armor via the +/- buttons. Reliability drops a ton, too, for certain turret and weapon choices, which, again, means it's time to get torsion bar suspension and wet ammo storage. Reliability can at least be off-set by the Maintenance support battalion being added to the armor template, but wow does reliability drop if you are using anything other than small/light options in the tank designer.

----------

Overall, it's a good DLC in my opinion. It is not perfect by any means... some balance issues even well into 2022 regarding tank designer options, and definitely problematic if you want to play USSR without Stalin.

But the historical Stalin pathway is really, really well done aside from slight complaints with purges. And the buffs to your military that you can add as any side via army spirits and officer corps are excellent.

So, again, to me it's one of the best DLC for the game, but with the caveat that if the sole purpose for you is to play as USSR without Stalin... well, that's the one glaring issue with it.

plazzaretti
plazzaretti

You would not believe your eyes

if ten million soviets died

on the frontlines because Stalin forgot to feed them

Kriegsspieler
Kriegsspieler

This dlc was a LONG time coming, and you can see why. Correcting the egregiously poor supply system in the original game was a massive task, requiring tearing through a lot of code to give the distribution of supplies a more realistic feel. There are still no actual supplies in the game, of course. That would require changing even more of the base game than they did change. That being said, the new system gives logistics some of the respect it deserves.

It's also a bit of a chore to manage, motorizing supply centers for a time and then returning them to horse-drawn status as the action passes by. The scope of the managing something like the Russian Front will be a considerable chore, to say the least. One might have wished for a slightly friendlier interface, but it's not too bad.

The other major change, a new NF tree for the USSR, is pretty good, on the whole. I know some people have complained about minor historical inaccuracies, but I have found the job of navigating through the Purge to be reasonably interesting. The basic story is to move through the stages of the Purge while trying to keep Stalin's and the NKVD's rising paranoia in check. There are a handful of decisions and NF's to help you do this, but applying those remedies at the right time for maximum benefit is challenging.

What about the tank designer, you ask? I would call it a half win for Paradox. It's fun to give players the chance to customize their afv's for particular purposes. In a manner rather like what they did for ship construction in Man the Guns dlc, No Step Back allows the player to do just that. The problem is, the research trees that are associated with these components are bare-bones and uninteresting. You start with one quality of armor, then you get a better one, and so on. Chassis are slightly more diverse and interesting, but not much. It all looks like an afterthought. One imagines that Paradox is waiting for some modder to do the job for them properly, after which point they'll adopt it for the vanilla game. And so it goes.

The other new focus trees may or not be worthwhile. I long ago lost interest in focus trees devoted to minor countries that are published for the sole intention of allowing people to play HOI as if it were Europa Universalis. It's an appealing pastime, I imagine, judging by the number of such focus trees that have been cranked out. But they're not to my taste. I want a game about World War II.

Paradox has gotten into the habit with this and other games of coming out with a worthwhile dlc every couple of years, while paying the bills in the meantime with minor, forgettable content packs. This dlc falls perfectly into that pattern. Like Man the Guns and La Resistance, it improves a basic game system. Unlike those two landmarks, however, the achievement here isn't quite as impressive.

So, this gets a thumbs up, but without great enthusiasm.

boom
boom

this dlc is so so so so so so so so so so so so so sos os

Johnny
Johnny

Endsieg was the best for me, for one damm reason, endsieg. or whatever it is that makes it possible to play as germany 1941,42,43,44,45 . That was the shit trying to save a empire that is going down. Just that the AI dosent work as it whas going to historically. Please you guys have a great game in front of you ! but you need to fix some of this problems that fucks everything up. Please do it ! I am probably one of your biggest fans, i have played since hearts of iron 1. And all i want do is play as germany in the later part of the war. And i would love if things happend just like they did in history. Or at least that AI GOES THAT WAY BOTH MILITARY ACTIONS AND EVERYTHING else.

gh0stt
gh0stt

good DLC, only get it on sale, not worth 20 bucks

Cptn. Beanz
Cptn. Beanz

no paradox product is worth full price

crossvase24
crossvase24

Brought back the Tzar to help Stalin retire early!

PIPFunds
PIPFunds

Bad game, it’s either your social life or it.

I choose hoi4.

Origin
Origin

Because this DLC was made by Paradox, you should expect some pricey DLCs. I recommend this DLC because of the content it gives you, but ONLY if it's on sale. DLCs from Paradox are usually put on sale 1-2 years after they are released by Paradox.

dsm
dsm

Very good DLC. I do not condone buying a key on https://www.g2a.com instead of overpaying for a paradox DLC.

sgtboat
sgtboat

I'm sure its a great game for some, but I found it to be tedious and not to my gaming style , just too many details, felt like I was doing Homework.
And now I cant seem to cancel my subscription and that is quite frustrating :-(

rabbit
rabbit

good:

-new supply system
-baltic and polish focus trees
-finally a soviet focus tree rework
-soundtrack

bad:

-less choice in soviet playstyle (even mods like rt56 gave more alternatives in their soviet focustree)
-bad tank designer (good idea, bad implementation)

This DLC killed tank combat, and kind of gave a disappointing Soviet focus tree rework, even though we waited so long. It plainly isnt fun anymore to play the Soviet Union, because you have very limited choices over the country. Either you stay with stalin and purge, or get thrown into a civil war to go either leftist communist, ''rightist'' (bukharinist) communist, or monarchist.

This might seem like Paradox gives the player a lot of choices, but getting through the tree takes so long, So much so that you will only finish the political tree by the end of the game, because you have to finish three other trees to fix your industry, your airforce and your army, so you can survive against Germany or any other major you are fighting against. In the end it's just about min-maxing because you have a time limit for the 3 year plan and a time limit for the imminent invasion. There is just no time for your political tree, if you decide to go alt-history.

JZeedog
JZeedog

Doesn't work - how can I get a refund?

Blunt
Blunt

I really like NSB even if the reworked Military EXP doctrine progression is probably one of the most frustrating things about this DLC. The Soviet union got a long deserved rework that honestly has a level of care and detail put into it that alot of the other DLCs really should have gotten. The polish rework as well as the baltic reworks are okay but typically dont offer much in industrial development but ig thats what i should expect when playing an eastern European nation. The infrastructure and supply rework is a change that is quite welcome as it actually lets you live the god awful experience of having to release that having a stupidly large army that eats an entire nations worth of supply out on the eastern front wasnt a great idea after all.

But I feel like i should mention this as it is quite important. The doctrine progression rework is slower than before and much slower for nations that arent majors or that dont see a whole lot of conflict throughout the game. This can make playing minors a pretty awful experince sometimes just due to have piss poor your doctrine or units will be when going up against a major. So be warned the game is a tad bit harder when playing certain minors now.

Bir Tawil Gov Official
Bir Tawil Gov …

This DLC is pretty fun, the Soviet Union has hours of more playtime. The supply system adds a lot of more depth to the game and, all I can say is.............

get it on sale!