The HOI4 community uses a lot of acronyms and jargon. Here are the ones you'll run into most while reading these guides or talking with other players, explained quickly.
General
- HOI4Hearts of Iron IV
- The game's name, almost never written out in full.
- Focus / focus tree
- Each country's national decision tree: every activated focus unlocks events, bonuses or new options.
- PPPolitical Power
- The currency you spend to activate focuses, hire ministers, or make certain political decisions.
- Ironman
- A game mode with no manual saving — it autosaves and you can't reload a previous save. Required for achievements, but not recommended for your first game.
- Historical / non-historical AI
- An option when creating a game that decides whether the AI roughly follows the real World War II script or makes more unpredictable decisions.
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Economy and Research
- Manpower
- The pool of population available to recruit new divisions. It runs out if you recruit faster than it regenerates.
- Production efficiency
- A military factory's real output relative to its theoretical maximum. See the production guide.
- XPExperience (army / navy / air force)
- Points earned through research, training or combat, spent on creating equipment variants or upgrading templates.
- MIOMilitary Industrial Organization
- Manufacturer consortiums that improve with use, introduced in the Arms Against Tyranny DLC. See the DLC guide.
Combat
- Combat width
- The "space" a division takes up in a battle. See the dedicated guide.
- OrganizationOrg
- A division's resistance to staying in the fight. When it hits zero, the division retreats or collapses.
- CASClose Air Support
- Aircraft that bomb enemy divisions directly in combat. See the air warfare guide.
- Command capacity
- The number of divisions a general or field marshal can lead without penalty. See the military command guide.
- Doctrine
- Your nation's land combat philosophy (Mobile Warfare, Superior Firepower, etc.). See the doctrines guide.
Diplomacy and Occupation
- World tension
- A global gauge that determines how much room you have to take aggressive actions without penalty. See the diplomacy guide.
- Faction
- A group of countries that commit to defending each other in case of war.
- Wargoal
- The process — and waiting time — needed to declare war on another country "legitimately" within the game.
- Compliance / Resistance
- Occupation mechanics introduced in La Résistance: how much the population accepts your control, and how much it organizes to undermine it. See the DLC guide.