Hearts of Iron II is a grand strategy computer war game for Microsoft Windows based upon its predecessor, Hearts of Iron, which was developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive.
It takes place in the time period from 1 January 1936 (1933 with an expansion) through 30 December 1947 (1964 with an expansion), and allows the player to assume control of any one of over 175 nations of the time and guide its development through the years before, during and after the Second World War. It was developed by Paradox Interactive and released in 2005. The lead game programmer was Johan Andersson.
A sequel, Hearts of Iron III, was released in August 2009.
Arsenal of Democracy, a grand strategy wargame based on Hearts of Iron II, was released in February 2010. Iron Cross, a Hearts of Iron II expansion, was released on October 7, 2010, and Darkest Hour, a stand-alone strategy game based on Hearts of Iron II, was released on April 5, 2011.
Gameplay
Hearts of Iron II is a grand strategy game. The player can build land divisions, aircraft squadrons, and naval ships/fleets, and combine these into corps and armies. The player also has the ability to control the appointment of commanders of forces under their nation's flag or that of controlled nations as well as to control the appointment of individual government ministers and military commanders in key General Staff positions. The player also has a broader ability to control the heads of state and government; however, this option is only available to democracies and only then through elections, in which the player chooses the winner. Technological research is controlled by the player. All this is on a global scale, with the player simultaneously dealing and interacting with nations across the world. The game can be paused at any point.
Playable nations
The player can choose to play almost any nation from the time period, apart from some very small states such as Andorra, Monaco, Vatican City or others (and mods exist that make even these playable). The player can also play as a new nation that gains its independence as the game progresses, but should wait until the nation actually declares independence in the game before it can be played. However, many smaller nations do not have strong tech teams, nor do they possess a strong industrial base.
Politics
The player is able to manage their nation's foreign and internal policies on the Diplomacy page. The player can declare war, annex territories and make alliances. The player can also alter the social and economic policies of their nation using sliders, such as democratic versus authoritarian, free market versus central planning and so on. Moving the sliders will result in different bonuses and penalties, allowing for a range of choices and strategies.
On the same page, the player can appoint leaders and ministers, with some exceptions. The Head of State and Head of Government can only be changed through moving the political left vs. political right slider, or through elections and other one-time events.
Resource management
Hearts of Iron II features nine resources, of which six are conventional resources, and the other three are manpower, industrial capacity and transport capacity: