Theater Pack - Hearts of Iron IV: Thunder at our Gates DLC

So, the DLC is a mixed bag for me. First the good: The new commander mechanic is great. It honestly makes more sense historical wise and it is a great addition to the game as well. Getting generals out on the field is just great. Also the new focus trees are pretty good. At least in the sense that there is much more content now. Now the bad: I dont really like how paradox is changing whole ass mechanics (like the military command system) and giving new countries HUUUGH buffs while countries that got updated before get nothing in this regard. Like as Germany at the start of the war you will have less mill-pp than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ indonesia... That just doesnt make sense. And please: If you add new mechanics, fix the old countries. At least just change the numbers. pls Also, the new commander mechanic is very broken. Like always with new mechanics... In general, there are a lot more bad dlcs. This is honestly not half as bad (for HoIV at least).

Price is insane for the content you receive, but the content is fine. The depth of the new focus trees is great and the revision to division design/army command adds a lot of depth to the game. Cannot however recommend for $20. Don't be like me, please wait for a sale :(

well, it isn't a true hoi4 DLC if it's not riddled with bugs and overpriced

How on earth is SLOP at our gates the same price as No step back? Seriously this DLC adds 3 mediocre trees with two new features (one is just a redesign of the division designer, and the other is the army HQ, which I overlook most times) thats it... Paraslop continues to pump out this consumerism bs and expect us to pay for it

TL;DR Consider it on sale. The content that is included is decent. So far I have tried the Australia content and it seems like they put effort into both mechanics and having lots of interesting focuses and choices even just for the historical democratic path. Siam and Indonesia seem similarly interesting. However, $20 for 3 focus trees is absurd. My main 3 issues with this DLC are: 1. Lack of content when there are more nations that could and should be included. Why does Malaya still have the generic focus tree despite the game being 10 YEARS OLD and the fact that Malaya was actually invaded by Japan? Moreover, a few patches ago they added Burma as a distinct country from the Raj, yet it also has the generic focus tree. What's the point of adding Burma as a separate country that just doesn't have a focus tree and does nothing other than to lag the game more? Many nations that didn't even fight in WW2 have focus trees so why have Malaya and Burma been left out from this DLC specifically about the theatre of the war in which they got invaded? 2. AI, especially the Axis AI, are too incompetent and don't know how to use aspects of the game. While i do acknowledge that most players do not want hard AI (and i agree it wouldn't be fun if the AI played perfectly and used the most meta templates and designs), i do think the AI should be able to use all of the games mechanics well, and the Axis and Allies should both put up a historically accurate challenge. Since NCNS i have seen Germany make it to Kiev once, and most of the time they get completely and permanently stuck in Belarus. Similarly, Japan seems completely incapable of island hopping, or really doing much of anything in the Pacific. Playing historical Australia or Indonesia isn't very interesting if Japan just sits around. At the very least the naval AI must be fixed. 3. Considering 1 and 2 the price is unacceptable. $20 for 3 focus trees and broken AI (Japan has done 0 naval invasions against the Allies in my Australia game) is a bad deal and I only own this DLC to write this review because I bought the expansion pass.

Selling Australia as a focal point of a DLC when there was already a Commonwealth DLC is laughable. Fix the trees you made us pay for.

Another Paradox slop dlc. I remember when Paradox used to actually make cool new mechanics and trees not just bloat stats.

What I've seen is alright. Yet to finish my first save but nothing so offensive that I want to rag on it for poor implementation. The features added are good, easily worth 10 or so buckaroonies. But 20 dollars? Same price for No Step Back? By Blood Alone? Arms Against Tyranny? 20 dollars? Who the ♥♥♥♥ do you think you are? 20 dollars? I have been playing this game since at least before Man the Guns, maybe not necessarily as far back as day one but close enough that I feel confident in saying I've seen the game's many forms and never a DLC as overpriced as this. The only reason it costs 20 bucks is because it has a few changes to combat, special forces, and command that serve to make it technically count as major DLC. When you compare these changes to the old 20 dollar overpriced standard 'Arms Against Tyranny', they are lackluster. Maybe the free update is just that big, props to PDX if so but I can look only at the value of what's on offer to a potential buyer here. I have the pass, would not have purchased as is. At a certain point I think PDX expects that, there is no way this last cycle of DLC would have seemed par for value if you were buying them individually.

I don't mind payind 40 euros for dlcs, but 20€ for an incomplete set of ideologies for three countries and barely any unit models is just insane to me. Do better.

Amazing after 10 years you can now have a limited war instead of having to completely cap a country... if you're Siam fighting France and that's it. Can we just get HOI5 already instead of more useless DLCs that add nothing but more bloat literally nobody asked for