Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone

By Blood Alone is a paid expansion for Hearts of Iron IV, Paradox's grand-strategy wargame covering the Second World War era. The DLC's headline additions are new national focus trees for three nations: Ethiopia, Switzerland, and Italy. On paper, that sounds like a solid content drop for a game where focus trees define the strategic identity of each playthrough. In practice, the reception from the playerbase has been consistently brutal, and understanding why matters before you decide whether this belongs in your library. The Ethiopia focus tree is genuinely the standout piece here. Playing as Haile Selassie against the Italian invasion gives you a historically charged, asymmetric scenario where you are outgunned from the start and every decision carries real weight. It is the kind of underdog path that HOI4 handles well when the developers commit to the narrative. Switzerland gets a neutrality-focused tree built around exploiting the diplomatic chaos around it, which appeals to a specific type of player who enjoys economic and defensive play rather than conquest. Italy, however, is where the frustration concentrates. Mussolini's tree had long been criticized as one of the weakest in the base game, and this DLC was supposed to fix that. The community verdict is that the rework, while improved, still does not reach the standard set by later focus trees in other DLC packs. For veterans who bought this primarily to finally have a satisfying Italian campaign, that landing is disappointing. The 35% positive score on Steam is not something to dismiss. It reflects a community that has high expectations shaped by stronger expansions like La Resistance or No Step Back. Those DLCs delivered mechanics that rippled across many playthroughs regardless of which nation you chose. By Blood Alone feels narrower in scope and thinner in mechanical novelty. The new plane designer system, also introduced alongside this DLC, does add a layer of customization to air production that number-crunchers will appreciate, letting you trade speed for range or agility for armor in ways that affect campaign planning. But it is the kind of feature that generates one interesting build session and then becomes routine. Who actually benefits from buying this? If you are an HOI4 player who specifically wants to run an Ethiopian or Swiss campaign and does not already own this, the value proposition is real for those two trees. If you are a newcomer to HOI4 entirely, this DLC is not where you start. The base game is your entry point, and the tutorial there is already steep enough without worrying about expansion content. The plane designer is a nice incremental addition but not a reason to purchase on its own. Completionists and lore-driven players who want every official focus tree in place will eventually pick this up, probably during a sale. Everyone else should weigh it against the stronger expansions in the HOI4 catalogue first. The mod ecosystem around HOI4 is worth mentioning because it provides honest competition to official DLC. Mods like Kaiserreich and The Road to 56 offer sprawling, deeply crafted focus trees for free, which raises the bar for what paid content needs to deliver. By Blood Alone clears the minimum bar but does not clear the community's actual expectations. At full price, it is a hard sell given the review record. At a discount, the Ethiopian tree alone makes it an interesting afternoon.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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