Hearts of Iron IV - UK Historical Playthrough - part 1

In this Hearts of Iron IV playthrough I'll be playing as the UK with the AI set to historical focus on normal difficulty. Hearts of Iron IV is a World War 2 grand strategy wargame that is incredibly detailed. You can watch my full playthrough (take from my livestream) here: • Hearts of Iron IV - UK...
►HOI IV Germany Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV: Ger...
►HOI IV USA Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV - US...
►HOI IV Japan Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV - Ja...
►HOI IV USSR Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV - US...
►HOI IV Italy Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV: Ita...
►HOI IV France Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV: Fra...
►HOI IV China Playthrough • Hearts of Iron IV: Chi...
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[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I currently have a load of other historical HOI playthroughs with more in the planning. You can find the current selection here: UK kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3WXZ2xoaqiEqJY Germany kzbin.info/www/bejne/raqlYaiqqZyAqM0 USA kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIO0kJ2LlMqtmbM Japan kzbin.info/www/bejne/aprOpYJpg6h6Z7s USSR kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5StZKdumKmrmrc Italy kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHfCgKmpp8pgbcU France kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5y1l3h_Zc6tnZo China kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaC7mYSDrL6gbZo Norway kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYrVg2iXl5xojKc

[@visassess8607]

This is exactly what I need. A nice, casual playthrough so I can actually see what's happening. I don't know the game very well and people just describing the UI or talking about the meta doesn't help new players like me.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I hope this helps! I don't play to the current meta, I prefer to keep this feeling like a World War 2 game rather than trying to power-play it. Enjoy :)

[@matthewoflynn4862]

Stumbled across this yesterday and absolutely love your playthrough. I'm on like episode 14 already. The navy is getting huge. New subscriber as of today glad I found it again. Keep up the good work. 👍

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Glad you're enjoying it Matthew! I've also got a USSR playthrough on the channel and just started a Japan playthrough too, which I'll be streaming at weekends :)

[@talltroll7092]

The Axis (mostly Hitler) tried quite hard to get Spain into the war, and Franco was thinking about it... then Barbarossa happened. Franco cited the need to rebuild after the Civil War, and made some pretty stiff demands of the Axis as the price of joining in (guaranteed deliveries of grain, steel, and oil mostly, which the Axis could never meet), because Spain was reliant on imports from the US, and Spain could not afford to offend the Allies. A few Spanish volunteers did serve on the Eastern Front (a squadron of fighters, and a division of troops), and Spain did help out the Axis indirectly with intelligence, and helping them to evade Allied blockades, but by the time Spain was sufficiently recovered to have contributed much to the Axis, it was clear that they were losing, so they quite wisely stayed out of it

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Apparently their was a German ambassador to Spain who didn't approve of Hitler, so encouraged Franco to make such outrageous demands of the Axis, knowing they could not be accepted. It was a real political web.

[@vueltaa_43]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays This was Wilhelm Canaris If I remember correctly, the head of German Military Intelligence (Abwehr). He ended up being executed in the last days of the war.

[@adamking2660]

Mate these were the perfect follow on videos from the Quill18 ones. Thank you!!

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

You're welcome! Have fun with your new-found knowledge :D

[@warwolf1282]

Just finished your Germany gameplay, amazing videos!

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy this one too. The UK was my first playthrough that I streamed :)

[@jodinha4225]

You disappeared off the face of my sub box for the longest time. Glad to see KZbin doing it’s job again!

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Welcome back :)

[@suphakrittanaraksirithaowo2153]

This great to watch or to also put in the background when doing stuff lol

[@mayhemer6503]

You sound like a really, really laid back Feedback. Got confused for a sec there kek. Great stuff, keep it up, I've just finished buying all the major DLC's, and I'm watching you to learn how to UK. I think it's the hardest one, right up there with the US, because I cba to do naval stuff.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

The naval stuff takes a bit of working out and I like to keep it fairly simple. The entire game though is one long learning experience, there is always something you didn't realise you didn't know until somebody points it out ;) If you want some more advice on the naval side take a look at Quill18's tutorial series, it helped me get into the game.

[@jodinha4225]

If you need to select your ships you can drag like with ground units, you just hold shift. Or control. One of them.

[@celebivevo3826]

this is class

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Thanks!

[@fred5763]

Coming in from the future here as a new player, the amount of quality-of-life changes they've made (like the air wings on the right side of the screen or the ability to send production lines to the top) makes me feel as though I've really lucked out lol

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

There are certainly a few things that have made the game easier to manage, but watch out for some of the DLC which add extra complexities and new systems :)

[@grantd165]

Nice shout out for Quill, top bloke. I just found your channel from his

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

He is indeed! I would have really struggled to get into the game had it not been for his series.

[@stoopidapples1596]

I’m watching this to try and understand navy. The US, UK and Portuguese trees seem like so much fun but they are all so naval focused that I really don’t want to.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I try to keep my naval organisation really simple, so you'll see that show up in the videos. Take a little practice to understand, but I really like it. I aslo recommend @quill18 's tutorial series on HOI IV that helped me a lot when starting out.

[@philiphinton6259]

Once you've got to grips with the base game, try the Kaiserriech mod

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

That seems really popular, I may check it out sometime.

[@elphonsaminis]

Ah yes. Who could forget the great disbanding of the air force.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

For anyone dropping by at the moment, my next HOI playthrough will the USA starting on December 7th - see you there! :)

[@jacobsimpson6775]

Cheers mate just picked up your channel.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

@@jacobsimpson6775 Welcome aboard!

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

For anyone looking for some good beginner-friendly tutorials on how to get into Hearts of Iron IV, check out @Quill18 's 7 part series here - its well worth watching! kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5DYdKqoqZJ_oaM

[@Fallout3131]

Subscribed!

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Thanks and welcome to the channel!

[@davidprice9628]

If you want a MASSIVE navy death stack at the start of the game, merge all groups, then select the remaining task forces in each fleet group and press "G"

[@MercuryKnight5]

Nice to see an historical playthrough. So many seem to think joining the Nazis or the Comintern is more sexy.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I just have no motivation or excitement to play those nations on historical. I might give them a whirl on non-historical at some point though. So far Britain and France are my favourite nations to play.

[@talltroll7092]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays Trying a Germany/Historical run, to see if you can conquer the world where they failed is probably worth a go at least once

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

@@talltroll7092 I sort of did that in a co-op multiplayer game with my friend who played Japan. Once we had beaten the UK, USSR and USA (hmm all the "U"'s) the rest of the world was just a walkover and got a bit repetitive towards the end. We did have allies though like Italy and Romania & co, so could have thrown them out of the alliance and conquered them too I suppose.

[@fuglbird]

Yes, you can have several instances of equipment. You don't have a single large drop in production when you upgrade them at different times but several smaller ones. It is useful in many situations.

[@marijnvantieghem6461]

Just started watching your series and really like it besides not knowing much about the game or half the stuff jou are doing in the game😅

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Glad you are enjoying it :D It gets much more interesting once the war kicks off and without giving any spoilers away this war looks like being different and interesting! Its a very complex game though, took me a long time to get to grips with.

[@marijnvantieghem6461]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays when do you stream? Wanna see the content live and interact with the stream

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

@@marijnvantieghem6461 I stream Monday and Friday evenings, Wednesday afternoons and other days if I have the time. Today however I'll be streaming Red Dead Redemption 2 as I want to get that finished asap. I'll continue HOI possibly Friday but definitely at the weekend if not. The best bet is to follow me at www.twitch.tv/markgfl and leave notifications on in case I go live at an unscheduled time. Be great to see you there if you can make it :)

[@Finnie2461]

Excellent play through and loving the channel, nice and chilled and thoughtful. I advice giving expert A.I a go sometime, I found it much more challenging

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Yes I really need to try out the harder difficulty, especially if playing with one of the more powerful major nations. Glad you're enjoying the videos!

[@CosyScripter]

This is the best youtuber in the world legit!

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Woohoo! Do I get a trophy for that? ;)

[@CosyScripter]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays Yes!! YOU SHOULD!

[@Fallout3131]

Thank you this video (and series I am beginning) has been so nice to watch. It's funny the first 3000 videos, but gets so boring and almost annoying seeing all the "meme" playthroughs that are EVERYWHERE now.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

They can be fun, but I really enjoy keeping this feeling like a WW2 game rather than doing all the crazy power-gaming and meta-gaming moves :)

[@jedimaceace8819]

:), Seattle was hit hard by Covid, But it recovered quick. Only took 1-2.5 years to get back to regular day activities :)

[@ghostsy]

I'm looking forward to Mount and Blade Bannerlord early access end of march on Steam. Was a massive fan of the original :)

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Me too, I'm looking forward to that!

[@omarsamaha2830]

I saw this a year ago and i am resseing it cuz it was too good

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Wow, glad you enjoyed it :D

[@fourlamb1]

The way you started is completely different that how I do? I.e. i get rid of all colonial garrisons and retake the manpower and equipment. Cancel half the ships. Upgrade the subs and the old heavy cruisers, then upgrade efg destroyers with upgraded depth charges, aa, radar/ sonar and smash hurricanes out.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Thats what I like about this game - lots of different strategies to try out and ways to play. Makes it really interesting to play through as the same nation again with a "lets see if this works..." attitude. I recently played as Germany and made a major effort to build up my air force from the beginning, which I have never done with other nations. I was amazed at how big, powerful and effective it became by the games end. Of course it was at the cost of not focusing on other production but I like that sort of balance.

[@500kl6]

When you started playing did you use small country's first

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Yes! I tried to learn the basics with smaller countries so there was less to worry about. The first time I played the UK it was co-op with a friend who also played as UK. That way we could share all the tasks and management and keep an eye on all the different theaters of the war without missing anything. It was a great way to learn the game.

[@orcho141]

Hey Mark. Do you think you'll do an Italy campaign now Italy is being completely reworked in the Blood Alone expansion?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I certainly will! I've actually had a sneaky early chance to play with the expansion (but can't show or reveal anything about it) and there is some interesting new stuff included in there. I'll do a playthrough very soon after it's launched I think.

[@orcho141]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays excellent I'll keep an eye out :)

[@Shuv455]

I'm four minutes in and I hope this wonderful voice isn't leading me astray lol I lost my first Uk Hist :)

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Hope you enjoy the series :) My first ever UK game was a co-op with a friend so we could both learn the game mechanics - we "shared" control of the UK. Turned into a disaster when we got so tunnel-visioned into micromanaging trying to liberate Norway that we didn't notice the Germans invading Britain :D Lessons were learned!

[@falanglao01]

Yeah, this sucks, you get warnings but no intertupt prompt or something like that as in Hoi2. I missed Italy joining the Axis like t this 😕

[@Blossomy77]

Just dont go broke (we need the empire to stay)

[@falanglao01]

😂😂😂 Plague...love it. Rediscovered it last year, stuck at home, no idea whats going on in the world. If its banned, that says a lot about the place youre living in. 😶😶😶 But seriously, about HoI4: Nice playstyle, not as extremely rushed like most, where its hard to follow

[@islaymassive1530]

I have been doing social distancing all my Life lol

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I think most gamers are quite well prepared :D

[@jordancole951]

What dlc’s do you use I.e like for the forces tree’s?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I have Man the Guns, Together For Victory and Awakening the Tiger. I got them all (or at least the last two) in some sort of discount deal all at once.

[@Sophiebryson510]

Yay historical

[@Arrwmkr]

You disbanded the airforce, that threw me.

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

It was just easier to recreate the air wings where I wanted them and in beter numbers than to go through each individual one.

[@Arrwmkr]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays sure but you say you don't lose anything in terms of material etc?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

@@Arrwmkr No, the aricraft go back into storage and you can reform them into new wings. The aircrew go back into available manpower.

[@fives2155]

these are a great follow on from Quill18s vids

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Thats where I learned the game :)

[@Jimbob-my9bz]

Why did 13 people dislike this its what you searched for

[@davidkeasling]

Hey, Mark, what with you being British , how do you feel about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

It was sad in the way that its always sad when a family member, mother, grandmother and great- grandmother pass away. She was a very well respected person. I personally though think that monarchy is a very outdated concept - nothing against King Charles, I think his environmental efforts are excellent - but in the 21st century should we really have titles, positions and heads of state decided at birth by bloodline? I think not and I hope the country will start to have this discussion.

[@500kl6]

You should of put the navy as something funny

[@elias_xp95]

Floaty McBoatys

[@space4166]

Ay nice do Canada aussie play through?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I've never tried one of those nations, is manpower much of an issue with them?

[@space4166]

@@MarkGFLLetsPlays I don’t play hoi4 :( but I watch yours. I think it might be cuz population like 10 million

[@callumconner20]

I suck at this game... I lost to Poland as Germany 😂😂

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

That is quite the alternative history you had going there :D

[@Fulllife3.2]

I lost to *LUXEMBOURG*

[@fammusikka6767]

I love your accent! As a Swede, I'm not good at identifying british accents, so I'm curious which part of britain you're from?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

I'm from North Yorkshire in the north east of England, a little above York. Its an area where we don't have quite as strong an accent as what is typically considered a "yorkshire accent" :)

[@islaymassive1530]

Can you go hippity hopitty Ireland is now my property?

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Yes, in a couple of ways. You can either turn the UK fascist and then go to war with whomever you like, or I think there is a political option to "occupy" Ireland. But when not playing historically the options are there to do anything :)

[@peres9559]

Castro 😅😅😅

[@erhanstranger3004]

What about banning the Englisg channel trade route instead of building 8 dockyard ? And also Britain has defensive war. Why you go with superior firpower doctrine? Mate, I truly love Britain history and I try very accurate Hoi 4 session. I play slowest way. I am doing well so far in July 1936 😂

[@MarkGFLLetsPlays]

Closing down the channel is a good idea, I can't remember if I do it in this run or not. I decided to make sure I won the war at sea with Britain, hence all the extra dockyards :) And hey, if you haven't lost by 1936 thats a good sign, right? :D

[@avybatt]

First, well... to comment

[@mocx4662]

NPC