In so doing, they managed to reverse the results of the Spanish Civil War, push heavily into the Pacific and ultimately got into a tussle with the UK and myself. Joseph Stalin started a smattering of other wars across the globe, making and breaking alliances to keep global pressure up on Germany. France collapsed under the pressure, but the USSR made some stunning choices. With Italy pulling resources from Africa, it managed to shore up the largest army in the world, which the emerging Mediterranean superpower used to bolster Hitler’s advance into France and Russia. I hadn’t given much thought to the development of the world’s stage or the early theatres of war and as a result, some things got a little out of hand. But, in so doing, Italy went largely unopposed in its campaign in Africa. With careful choices-namely an eye for research, and carefully hiring top scientists like Robert Oppenheimer (a noted historical nuclear physicist), I pulled it off. I set my sights on having a stable of city-busting bombs ready to go by 1942-three years before their real-world deployment.

I started as the United States in 1936, and I decided that I wanted to doggedly pursue nuclear weapons. It’s easy to muck with the flow of history, and in doing so unearth brain-bending strategic challenges that allow you to tell your own story of an alternate version of World War II. Different players will have different preferences-you can be as dove or hawkish as you like-and Hearts of Iron will support you. You command one of the world’s many countries (you can play as just about any nation that existed during World War II), and your goal in this grand strategy game is to survive the coming storm. That’s what Hearts of Iron IV is all about. War is tricky business, and when your conflict stretches to the globe’s far-flung corners, it gets that much tougher.

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