The Official Hearts Of Iron 4 Focus Tree Tier List

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Trying out something a little new on the channel today and thats the official isorrowproductions tier list for focus trees! Enjoy the ramblings!
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#hoi4 #tierlist

[@iSorrowproductions]

Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals/isp - Enter promo code ISP for 83% off and 3 extra months for FREE!

[@IdiotOnlinee]

yooo the video works now

[@That_Guy_Named_Epyk]

Oo

[@Byotch]

One thing, the Mexican democratic focus tree is not another “Canada” because it still allows you to claim and go to war with every Hispanic nation and core most of it. You don’t have to go communist. You can do Aztlan without being communist.

[@paradoxy4176]

Do Artillery Only

[@BeastModeCode]

Get that bag, big boy

[@randompirate774]

If I don't see the Italy tree in S tier I'm going to turn the Geneva convention into a bucket list

[@colebaker8261]

Damn it

[@colebaker8261]

Got me

[@AlexYoes]

Im gonna agree with you

[@yeatnumber1Dmuncher]

It's not a hate crime if you love doing it

[@sokagames0114]

Geneva convention more like Geneva suggestion

[@seangunn4772]

I swear I've gaslit myself into thinking iSorrow was once sponsored by Ironside

[@bigcanolli5083]

I WAS JUST THINKING THE SAME THING! No idea what happened to that

[@christiankm8820]

same

[@soman5348]

Yeah what DID happen to that?

[@drearyplane8259]

\*Hammer strikes anvil* DWOONNNGK

[@b1ackops153]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHewhot-o8uqftE I think this is the last time It was used

[@WithKittehs]

The reason the 'Canadian Pacific Railway' focus takes 70 days only to add level 1 railways is actually an accurate depiction of how slow our government operates! Such detail Paradox!

[@aspl5717]

True!

[@eggisfun4217]

same with australia! love to canada from australia

[@jacobsorbie602]

Damn right

[@LaVaZ000]

Canadians: complain about their government and infastructure Meanwhile Eastern Europeans:

[@bryanharte551]

Still no high speed rail in eastern canada

[@kwiteloverboy]

You’re digging your own grave, now whenever hoi4 gets a new focus tree DLC, the little timmies will say “Tier liSt PaRt TwO wHeN”

[@seanm241]

He could just add the nation to the tier list once he's done playing them

[@Jimothyjohns]

The littler timmies. The little timmies are good boys and girls

[@cbtillery135]

I really think he does need to do a tier list redux probably next year, or in the event of Hoi5 becoming a thing.

[@snoopie2253]

I swear every time I see an ISP video I'm always expecting the Ironside hammer strike even tho it's been nearly two years since the last one

[@noahgilling3241]

I miss hammie the hammer so much

[@snoopie2253]

@@noahgilling3241 I miss it too.

[@TNOBasedBatov]

@@noahgilling3241 same

[@Novaerian]

When did he lose the sponsorship? Was there any major reason, or did the deal just run out

[@kabobawsome]

@@Novaerian Deal just ran out. No sort of falling out, they didn't approach ISP about extending it and nor did he approach them.

[@Scormio99]

This reinforces that they REALLY need to go back and update some of the older trees from TFV and DoD to get the up to date with modern ones.

[@DoubleBruhMoment]

Some of the trees from waking the tiger need it too

[@roboiii3873]

Yeah Japan really needs an update in my opinion.

[@pastachief385]

@@roboiii3873 imo the historical path is one of my favourites, and the navy + army paths are perfect, but the monarchist and communist trees are beyond awful and need reworks for sure

[@gfaghahtst]

I want updates for them as well, but its HAS to be a free updates. Paying again for reworks or updates after they technically already got one will feel like shit. It either has to be free or included with a very large amount of content outside of the tree that was fixed up or just thrown in with example the South America dlc in the future, even if the nation that gets fixed up is completely unrelated to that region.

[@creativenamelol]

I am pretty sure the nations with no focus tree need a little more attention first

[@niku4154]

I wish for the German Democratic Tree to get reworked, Deals with Poland to buy Danzig and Westprussia, giving the Poles Industry, European Stratagems with your Neighbors, Arms Deals to America or other Democracies, maybe even a Bundestag in which you need to root out the Brownshirts... There's a lot of Potential

[@edwardrichtofen611]

Democratic Germany is cancer already. They get the whole of Europa in a faction, the other half of the world will go into the allies, so either you do early expansions or you will get douple fucked by 3/4 of the world.

[@ajrk95]

Democrats/Commie Germany should require be a multi year long civil war

[@Devirioka]

That sounds really fun

[@DrRitterstein]

And while they're at it, maybe add a f*cking Communist Tree. They were pretty damn popular before Funny Mustache Man and i doubt he could root them all out

[@CrashXII]

It wouldn´t make much sense for a Democratic Germany to buff Poland because even the Democratic Parties regarded Poland as an artificial state that needs to be erased from the map

[@kingdom63366]

Honestly pre-bftb turkey is one of my favorite minors to play as in hoi4. Post bftb... paradox please make a bunch of those focuses 14/35 days. It doesn't fix the main problem with turkey's new tree but at least it's a simple start.

[@kusturucu1015]

What is the problem exactly with the post-bftb Turkiye? I have started to the play the game with the La Resistance and simply cant see why people are so upset with some countries after custom focus tree?

[@kingdom63366]

@@kusturucu1015 for me it's the length of time everything takes combined with the amount of things you need to do to make progress down the focus tree. Even worse none of what you need to do is obvious at first glance and requires really studying the focuses and decisions to make sure you go down the right path. One misclick and you're doing a different ideology or starting a civil war. Other nations make it far more obvious exactly what you have to click. If you mess up with other countries, at worst it's delayed a focus instead of completely lost. It makes the whole thing tedious and removes a lot of the freedoms Turkey once had in game. Most BftB games I find that I can't do much of anything as Turkey before 1941/42. By that point playing other nations I've already joined the war and the political stuff in the focus tree was finished before the war even started.

[@darth3911]

@@kusturucu1015 Basically the new focuses are made so long that the game will end before you can complete the focus trees.

[@weebscp0966]

i thlammed my penith in the car door

[@mrcleantrash2345]

U too

[@risticcc8486]

You slammed your penIS in the car door?

[@karl5599]

Thlammed*

[@weebscp0966]

i accidentally sacrificed the isp heart to make it right.

[@apollo9098]

I would have to disagree over Spain, it looks big but right off the bat half of it is shaved off, then you pick one of the remaining three paths and other than the communist path it’s very fun to build up and do some shenanigans with a good medium sized tree, there is a lot of missed potential and stuff that doesn’t work right (like anarchist revolutions) but definitely a B or even A tier for me

[@markwalshopoulos]

The Mexican focus tree is super op because you can keep central America as puppets and allow them to go through their industry trees and annex then for like 50 pp while getting them as cores, very powerful, sadly doesn't work for the Caribbean

[@sebthetomato]

Really expected a A-tier on Poland with how positive he was on it

[@Tdelliex]

#A4poland

[@lacrimosa7073]

Daily petition for ISP to eat beans at 3:47 am

[@johnsteampunk6408]

Oddly specific time to ask him to consume Campbell beans [TM] at 3:47

[@funnyman4744]

3:47 AM with 12.32 seconds left until 3:48 AM

[@JustinianRomanov]

This certainly is the HOI4 Focus Tree Tier List ever made

[@horstschlemmer9578]

Just so you know ISP. When you play Yugoslavia and do the release and reform path, you get cores on all you puppets in the Balkans! So if you have Bulgaria as a puppet for example you get cores on them after integrating them for free. And the game is very generous as to what it calls the balkans.

[@RingoStarr_]

What does it count?

[@solgerWhyIsThereAnAtItLooksBad]

They patched that

[@MrFaorry]

However you lose cores on stuff you don't own, primarily Zara and Istria which you start the game with cores on but will lose if you don't take them before reforming.

[@blazikem]

As the UK it's actually really easy to keep the dominions; you need to take the focus that'll give you decisions for having troops in your dominions to pacify them but you'll only have a short window to do it, I think I managed to get them all secured so it is possible to basically not be penalised at all.

[@Astro-strategist]

As a Czech I must 100% agree, our focus tree isnt that great, but that the fun level is pretty good. But I must say I enjoy the Greece economical tree.

[@brendan1904]

Still trying to decide if one hour of isorrowproductions is a blessing or a curse

[@battleship6177]

Yes

[@marx252]

The only change I would make is to move Poland to S tier. I think their tree is just that good. NSB was amazing.

[@thekommunistkrusader3921]

NSB is probably the best one

[@darth3911]

My favorite is the German focus tree and the only things I don’t like about it is theres no communist path and the democratic path sucks. Besides that both the monarchist and the base game fascist paths are fun.

[@154Kilroy]

When playing monarchist Germany, switch to extensive conscription during the Civil War, and there is a focus that gives you war economy. Or, you can switch that also during the Civil War, and go down the focus that puppets Romania/Hungary.

[@DerFreiegedanke]

Ok so i played Greece with the Byzantium tree and its fun. You get cores on whole Turkey and you get "mission goals" later down the line. The hole military tree add national ideas and buffs the nation to a level where it can compete i think the Greece tree is more of a fun one because it gives you more then just temporary or boring Tech boosts.

[@musAKulture]

too big, too annoying. i turn off BoB every time. no reason to finesse all the factions in a single country and looking at a giangantic tree that doesnt really give you many directions. im here for the pewpewpew

[@someonethatlikesyou7713]

i agree its pretty fun you can also cheese turkey in alexandroupolis!

[@DerFreiegedanke]

@@musAKulture How about Call of duty then?

[@shahriyarhakhamanashiya4626]

@@musAKulture How about trying a RTS instead? Grand strategy is not supposed to be all about micro, I'm quite happy the game is moving away from Starcraft Mappaint edition... It still lacks good economic mechanics though...

[@ZebraUnite]

ISP’s misery has reached such extremes KZbin had to break the video stream just so our eyes wouldn’t have to suffer too.

[@Catboy_Lyon]

Oh thank god. I thought my KZbin was dead.

[@cellbuilder2]

With the new Italy focus tree being in development, they'll probably have to revamp the tutorial a little to match. Considering that Italy is the tutorial nation, an adjusted tutorial to match the new focus tree sounds proper.

[@cloudnite373]

They should probably have German Reich as tutorial but thats maybe bad considering you dont have war at the start unless you start in 1939

[@chrystales6169]

@@cloudnite373 The ethiopian war is basically like the first tutorial enemy you encounter in an RPG. It should be so easy for new players that they can't fuck it up.

[@cloudnite373]

@@chrystales6169 yeah fair point

[@BDLBDL]

A lot of the focus trees have focuses that just straight up don't work or work very strangely. I know a good few of the Battle for the Bosporus trees have focuses that don't work well, And one of the Yugoslavia paths has a focus or event that seems to unintentionally game over you (It's meant to be a civil war but whatever they did just makes it instantly capitulate you, from memory).

[@Jedibob5]

What exactly brings Poland down to B tier? From the glowing review ISP gave it, I was expecting at least A tier, if not S tier, I don't think he had anything remotely negative to say about it

[@alexh2947]

THANK YOU FILLER CONTENT PRODUCTIONS I LOVE FILLER CONTENT.

[@bruhham6486]

As Portugal, you can do a path to annex and core Spain, and I think that's worth something.

[@thatponybro6940]

ISP: *mentions Spain's FT is bad* me: *remembers how broken the Anarchist branch can be with coring everything*

[@samuelhammons2528]

I remember watching the first video without the Ironside intro and even now, two years later, the lack of the hammer strike at the beginning of the video still catches me off guard.

[@Jack_Dab]

As a Lithuanian, I agree with this video.

[@rapolasantanavicius6025]

Teisingai, brolau

[@asj392]

bazaras seni

[@marekcmonster1937]

Honestly I would personally put Poland higher in A or S, other than that I would agree with all the other choices

[@joda7129]

As Estonia you can also get cores on all the Baltics+Nordics

[@Subsandsoda]

the fact that he didn't mention the secret polish tree..... i can't bear it

[@alexh2947]

Good pun

[@Bob-fh4ht]

nice

[@ijnfus]

as an italian, i can confirm that our focus tree is truly the most complex and important one

[@grantforester1864]

For me, New Zealand’s tree was ok, as I always managed enough with it in a regular mp game. With enough fanagling you can get 3 41 lights or 1 39 medium/heavy tank divisions by war start. Amazing for the Africa front since you can blitz with the Safrica player.

[@user-mw2vn7pv8n]

Greek focus tree is just an easy S tier. You can revive Byzantium, that is were the conversation ends.

[@moulinexm7600]

Yes but it's a mess. If you go historical with Metaxas you can't claim Cyprus or go to Byzantium. It doesn't make any sense you have to go democratic to do that.

[@largeorbofpossums9466]

Is anyone else not able to watch this video? I only see a screen that says “no stream, tap to retry”. I reload the video and I still can’t watch it? Why is that?

[@Aspyboi]

Yea same

[@Aspyboi]

One hour later hey look the video works

[@BasedPeter]

I think Paradox heard the community's outcry after the lackluster focus trees in TfV and DoD and went straight to the other extreme with stuff like the Greek, Turkish, new Soviet and Italian focus trees where there's just so much shit you need to do before you even build a single military factory or declare war. I mean I for one think the old Italian tree was perfectly servicable, but needed some actions past 1941, as well as an alt-hist path or two.

[@FrostyWheats]

Video isn’t loading bug sad

[@ir2633]

Omg it's the whole hour - I'm dying of happiness already

[@Bigjoebig]

Actually its 53 minutes and 26 seconds long

[@childofslaanesh1251]

49:10 Im going to have to hard disagree here, seeing 'Thundercross Latvia" across the map is the best thing in Hoi 4

[@tyingbigknots2470]

For some reason I can’t watch your video: “No stream - Tap to retry”

[@Bahns007]

44:35 with the Blackshirts path, there is a way to avoid that by sending garrisons to the dominions (albeit very tedious) and spending a bunch of PP

[@yankinatank4801]

Jokes aside, I really liked this video, especially the thumbnail! Hope you do more of this!

[@tomxipe]

Personally I love the Turkish tree. I like the fact that the tree plans until the invasion of Japan actually. It's the opposite of Japan's tree in some regard. And it is interesting

[@mr.t758]

Can’t watch the video. Keeps saying “No stream…Tap to retry”

[@themackie2763]

Same

[@JIopemUncym]

19:15 Missed opportunity for "B for Baguette"

[@sean4929]

Some big surprises there, would love to see a lost of most fun nations to play.

[@kaycee7651]

Literally have this playing while I play Millennium Dawn

[@AJO7153]

Enjoyed this vid a lot 👍

[@goli8699]

Time to once again watch a 1 hour Long Video about a Game I'll never play

[@reeceshugrue6167]

Isorrow has reached that point in his youtube career where he's becoming a tier-list channel

[@Sc0ts]

Give us a nation tier list of which ones you think are the most fun. Personally I've played over 2,000 hours of HoI4 and I love hearing you point out fun vanilla things that I have never done, like democratic Japan

[@whatifwaffles7473]

Am I the only one that has it say “No stream”

[@susibuki8546]

When i saw you rate lithuania s tier i just had to like the video

[@muovi2463]

Portugal is probably one of the funnest non majors to play. Good focus tree, early expansion, potential for having unlimited manpower from the collab government in India, fun cheese tactics to do with your overseas colonies to annex australia and the dutch east indies Just so much fun

[@e.corellius4495]

yep, its the definition of unlimited potential. you can go where ever and do whatever you decide to do. most other nations are kinda locked in their region unless you want to waste time on a global conquest run.

[@nixtrostrike]

I might be biased because I'm portuguese, however the Portuguese focus is by far one of the best. Some of the most fun I had playing this game. Btw communist path is underrated.

[@CoffeeSuccubus]

Italy has the potential of jumping from D tier to possibly A or even S tier because of how it just looks, and how fun it may be

[@luckyluciano1584]

Got no stream is that me or does everybody else also have that

[@Imperial_Kaiser]

I have it too

[@TheCTCSquad]

Everyone has it

[@daniel22208bruh]

I have it

[@Gigas0101]

Italy's focus tree remaining unchanged comes with an interesting side effect that I quite like; it doesn't break the tutorial like what happened with Crusader Kings. It makes me kinda scared for the upcoming Italy focus tree rework, it might finally kill the tutorial. Japan's Showa Restoration just gives you high definition blurays of classic tokusatsu movies and shows, making it the best focus in the whole game.

[@DonSMDT]

I've heard the Obedience part of the Manchuria tree was good for one of the achievements.

[@houndmaster5843]

I think Isorrow should do every focus tree in Spain and it'd probably take longer than a-z

[@user-je9kb2ce3v]

sure the Greek tree only goes up to about 1940 but up to then I fing it quite fun. and if you go down Byzantium you can do loads of expansion

[@creativename235]

ISP: this focus tree is a gift from god,ive never seen such a perfect tree, *C tier*

[@SvampBobGaming]

720p of pain

[@KFP_Prophet]

The Greek Byzantium path was probably the most fun I ever had with hoi iv, atleast in recent times. I'm not even a Byzaboo.

[@makiskanyt9269]

Yeah it's fun to ruin turkey

[@Arthion]

Just a note, Bulgaria doesn't get cores on all of Turkey, just the tiny bit in Europe. You do get to annex them though but you will have resistance. Fascist Dutch is actually pretty cool, you can become a pretty big naval power, just make sure to occupy most of France for the resources you need.

[@realcanadian96]

53 minute ISP video! Lets go!

[@ryansearle6157]

Watching him go over the focus tree reminded me if the time I saw ai Lithuania reform the commonwealth THEN form the baltic union, so there was just this giant "baltic national assembly" that was rolling over the soviets

[@avenpreston2001]

i am proud of my Canadian ancestors contribution in both world wars it was very new for us as a minor nation i have family that served in the RCAF during both world wars and in the army in the world wars, also i think they should keep the CPR (Canadian pacific railway) cause its a decently big part of the industry of our country so i think it could also give a bunch of buffs to industry

[@Stanley-rq6vv]

All trees in the video, divided by DLCs Base game (not updated yet): Italy - 24:24 Together for Victory: Australia - 2:05 Canada - 4:41 New Zealand - 32:20 British Raj - 36:44 South Africa - 38:14 Death or Dishonor: Czechoslovakia - 11:12 Hungary - 23:01 Romania - 37:24 Yugoslavia - 47:15 Waking the Tiger: Communist China - 6:25 China - 8:20 Germany - 19:16 Japan - 26:06 Manchukuo - 27:41 Chinese Warlords - 45:44 Man the Guns: USA - 13:49 Mexico - 29:27 Netherlands - 31:00 UK - 43:01 La Résistance: France - 16:44 Portugal - 35:48 Spain - 41:05 Battle For The Bosporus: Bulgaria - 3:30 Greece - 20:56 Turkey - 33:04 No Step Back: Poland - 34:54 Soviet Union - 38:50 Baltics - 48:48

[@loopyguy7611]

54 minutes...woah!.... i like the video, good list, straightforward and pretty concrete with your reasons.

[@Charles-In-Charge]

No stream… tap to retry??? I thought this was a video?

[@val8389]

Press for Liberia. Do I need to say anything else about Poland's focus tree?

[@val8389]

Not as sacred as the Liberia focus.

[@solgerWhyIsThereAnAtItLooksBad]

No stream?

[@baliistic3697]

I would be interested to see where you put the Italian focus tree after By Blood Alone. It's now one of my favourite nations to play

[@nert4285]

Do you think you could put videos in sort of categorized playlists, cause I love these weird little side things. However since there aren't really playlists on your channel it makes finding these really difficult since they eventually get drowned out by your other videos. It would probably even get you a slight boost to views since it would people re-watching older videos. Other than that you're doing great!

[@gabrilandproductions7905]

Lithuenia number 1 Lets goooooooo.

[@nono-cm3km]

The video we never asked for but always needed

[@nono_Hoi4]

Hello brother

[@ceballos-exe]

With Mexico you can actually go nuts with conquering just like with democratic, its quite fun.

[@thekommunistkrusader3921]

Soviet union focus tree, is so good... I loved playing the third rome. Brought back the tsar but almost immediately replaced him with the man that has the trait "defiler of the sun god"

[@hyperpas9805]

Why can’t I watch this video

[@AzraelAngel945]

Video doesn’t work?

[@khalilabushahin418]

WHERE THE DANCING RAT🐀🐁🐭🐀🐁🐭🐀🐁

[@hanneswiggenhorn2023]

The Spanish tree feels like it's designed for replayability, the only problem is I don't want to replay the Spanish civil war

[@wetwillyis_1881]

I wonder if we’ll get Hoi5 before we get a proper focus tree for every nation in the base game?

[@thekommunistkrusader3921]

Not for every one and honestly I feel as if they wont be particularly great until a year or 2 in

[@daanvanbeek2991]

Ever explored the Byzantine Restoration? It's possibly the very best focus tree there is.

[@rubber924]

I really enjoy playing New Zealand I'm multi-player. I just meme and everyone gets confused when the NZ Mechanized rolls by

[@aihatsuchannel4013]

It would be great if you do focus tree tier list on hoi4 mod too, like kaiserreich or red flood etc.

[@Bahns007]

3:19 yup. Because the frontline of the Civil War in Indonesia is a mountain tile over a strait... HOWEVER, two ways around that. One, if you're lucky, the settled frontline does vary playthrough to playthrough so you can send Transport Planes as Air Volunteers along with sending Paratroopers and and encircle the entire enemy army and just win (IF the settled frontline is in range of the Transport Planes to encircle with Paratroopers) The other option is building a sh*tty half Marine, half Mountaineer (3 each, 1 artillery and 1 light tank in the template) Space Marines with support artillery but you have to spend quite a significant amount of time and resources (Army EXP, research, etc) early game to build TLDR: Either use Paratroopers (if you're lucky and the transport planes are in range) to encircle the enemy army or build sh*tty Marine/Mountaineer Space Marine Divisions

[@Ninjaankylo]

POV no stream tap to retry

[@c0balt5]

As a lithuanian, I almost shed a tear when I heard you talk about how great the lithuanian focus tree is. Thank you Mr Sorrow, thank you. If you ever visit Lithuania, kebabs and cheap beer is on me ❤

[@ernestasbogdanovicius1359]

Way to go m8!

[@Augustus_Imperator]

thanks for highIighting the chapters to easiIy navigate through this 53 minutes, 31 different nations video, it reaIIy heIps

[@DonutOfNinja]

The new zealander focus tree is S, you can get the bob semple tank

[@piecemakernoalias1018]

No step back took away the bob semple, so now it has literally nothing going for it

[@deezboyeed6764]

@@piecemakernoalias1018 why? Why did it take it away, they should add it as a unique tech

[@TheSubAtomicHedgehog]

Next series idea. Forming every formable nation in Hoi 4 A to Z

[@SuperAndrewization]

I would say with portugal the communist one where you become iberia is also pretty fun and much less of a minefield compared to the spanish one

[@deathstrack]

Manchukuo is still my favorite country and the one where I actually got to 1948 after defeating Japan. I joined the Chinese alliance and lost all my gains to the RoC. Then I 1v all of China and won

[@g2ltt733]

Imagine the lag in 1948, i got to 1943 and it took me at least over an hour to get to 1944.

[@qj4z88]

Finally, it's here.

[@egel7772]

This is Quality Content.

[@mostlyhybrids]

Soyjak isp is a very cursed image I didn't think I'd need to see